Solar eclipse of April 2023: how it was and how it influences you

At dawn from April 19 to 20, with the new Moon, the first of the four eclipses that occur in 2023 occurred, and it was not just any eclipse. What it produced is a rare type of eclipse known as a hybrid solar eclipse, that could be seen as total in some areas of the planet and as null in others. There won’t be another like it until 2031!

This first solar eclipse of 2023 has been baptized with the name of Eclipse Ningaloo, in reference to the beautiful coast of the same name where the largest coral reef in Australia resides. Off the coast of Ningaloo, the epicenter of the eclipse, the Moon completely darkened the sky for 62 seconds by completely obscuring the Sun.

Any layman attracted to eclipses will know that there are three types of solar eclipses: partial, annular, and total. This fourth type of solar eclipse, the hybrid solar eclipse, is less well known but particularly interesting because combines the two most spectacular types of eclipse: annular and total. It starts as an annular eclipse to become a total eclipse and then annular again.

See the eclipse ONLINE

To view the hybrid solar eclipse in person, like any solar eclipse, you need to bring a adequate eye protection, because if you look at the Sun directly without protection, you could suffer serious damage to your eyesight. Neither in Spain nor in South America was it possible to see the eclipse in person.

In Spain, unless it is possible to travel, we suggest that you do not miss the opportunity to enjoy it online. You can see how the eclipse has been in this video, the live broadcast that once carried Time and Date directly from Exmouth, Australia. You will be able to see how the disk of the Moon gradually hides the Sun until we plunge into little more than a chilling minute of darkness:

As you can see in our lunar calendar for April 2023, on the 20th in the morning the new moon of April also occurred. Total eclipses always take place on a new Moon. That hidden Moon that we did not see then appears in the Sun, becoming visible, and the visible Sun hides.

How was the eclipse of April 20, 2023

The solar eclipse of April 20 was a hybrid or mixed annular/total eclipse and its moment of maximum magnitude took place at 6:16 a.m. Central European Time. The first town in the world that began to see the eclipse as partial did so at 3:34 a.m. Central European Time; the last town to see it finish, also in partial phase, did so shortly before 9am.

Since the eclipse began until it ended, more than five hours elapsed, but the duration of the eclipse in its totality phase was only from 60 to 75 seconds approximately. Just before and after the total eclipse, Baily’s pearls could be seen and during the moment of totality, an imposing crown.

What is a hybrid solar eclipse

A hybrid solar eclipse is an eclipse that starts and ends as null, but in between becomes total. This means that those who are in the band of totality of the eclipse -on this occasion a narrow strip that will cover mainly oceanic waters of the Indian Ocean– could theoretically have seen the eclipse one way or another depending on where they are.

Observers who witness a hybrid solar eclipse at sunrise or sunset can enjoy the ring of fire. Those who do it at noon –in the central hour of the eclipse– will observe a total eclipse. From the same place it is impossible to see the eclipse first as annular and then as totalso if you move you have to choose: either you see it cancel or you see it total.

In the case of April 20 hybrid solar eclipse the transition from an annular eclipse to a total eclipse occurred, according to reports from Starwalk, in remote oceanic waters of the Indian and Pacific oceansnear Antarctica at one end and the Marshall Islands at the other.

How a hybrid solar eclipse develops

We can divide a hybrid solar eclipse into two phases:

During the annular phase, the Moon does not hide the Sun completely and reveals its circumference. The Moon, the Sun and the Earth are perfectly aligned, but the Moon is a little further from the Earth and hides only the central part of the Sun, without completely eclipsing it. It is the longest phase of the eclipse and during it the so-called “ring of fire” can be observed.During the total phase, which will be visible in the central area of ​​the eclipse and will last less than the annular phase, the Moon will completely hide the Sun and it will be “night” on Earthin the strip from where the total eclipse is visible.

The change from one phase to another in the hybrid eclipse is produced by the curvature of the earth. At the beginning and end of the eclipse, the Moon is about 6,500 km further from Earth than during the central part of the eclipse, according to data from the beginner’s astronomy website Stargazer.

Due to the distance in which the Moon is from the Earth at this moment in its orbit, from our perspective the Moon and the Sun look very similar in size, so that difference of 6,500 km changes everything and it is what turns the eclipse into a hybrid solar eclipse. At times when the Moon is furthest away, it cannot completely hide the Sun (allowing the ring of fire to be seen and producing an annular eclipse) and when it gets closest to Earth, it completely covers it (producing then the total eclipse).

FROM Where the eclipse was visible

The hybrid eclipse of April 20 could be seen as total throughout a narrow strip that runs through mainly Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean watersalthough they are lucky to be in that strip the north west coast of Australia (especially the town of Exmouth, in the North West Cape), East Timor, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Exmouth, a town situated at the end of the Australian North West Cape, is one of the few terrestrial points from where the eclipse could be seen in its totality phase. There the sky darkened at 11:27 in the morning local time. In many other locations in Western Australia, the eclipse could also be partially followed, with a greater or lesser degree of darkness.

It was also seen as partial in a good part of the Philippines, Micronesia and New Zealand.

Can the April solar eclipse influence us?

In the lunar calendar of biodynamic agriculture, eclipses are taken into account when recommending or discouraging certain field tasks and personal care, regardless of where one is.

According to Marga Roldán, an expert in evolutionary astrology, solar eclipses are moments with a special energy. “This is a time when you may feel more difficulties, fears and pain when trying to show yourself as you are. An internal struggle is activated between what you want to be and what you fear.”

This eclipse represents in astrology, in the words of Marga Roldán, “a precious opportunity to see what you want to let go to follow your pathbecause you can take advantage of the energy to clearly see those internal difficulties, accept them and transmute them “.

“The invitation is to quiet the internal fire, contemplate and discover everything we hide from ourselves to welcome it and thus strengthen who we really are”, he points out.

When will the next eclipse be?

An eclipse is always followed by at least one other. Fifteen days after this first eclipse of 2023, a lunar eclipse will take place: it will be the May 5th and it will be a penumbral lunar eclipse that will be able to witness, to a greater or lesser extent, up to 84% of the world’s population.

For the next solar eclipse we will have to wait for autumn Annular solar eclipse of October 14, 2023, which will be viewable in whole or in part throughout North America. According to NASA data, the “ring of fire” can be seen along a long but narrow strip that runs through the western United States, Central America, Colombia and Brazil.

We will not see a hybrid solar eclipse until the November 14, 2031. This time you will have to go to Central America to see it. The next ones will be already in 2049, 2050 and 2067.