The eclipse, which is literally the sun is shaded by the moon, has two types. One is the "total eclipse" or just "eclipse" which show the sun shaded completely, and the other is the "partial eclipse" in which we can see some portion of the solar disk is hided by the moon. The former one is very rare to happen but very important for the study of solar outer atmosphere. This time, we could observe the "partial eclipse" in Japan.

Here is a question. How much portion of the sun is shaded by the moon in your city? Since the line of sight to the sun is different when we stand different positions on the earth, the area of the shade is also different among different observers standing at different places. Let us see the area of the shade on the images obtained at Hida and Kyoto, in Japan, and find the difference.

This was the partial solar eclipse since two years and four months ago. The next solar partial eclipse will appear on 19th Mar, 2007 (unfortunately, this partial eclipse can not be seen in Kanto area).

On 22nd July, 2009, the total solar eclipse will be shown around "Amami-Ohshima" island. Because the duration of the "total eclipse" is expected to be more than 5 minutes, this must be the great chance to see the beautiful and fantastic solar atomosphere by eyes.