Annular Eclipse

Mark your calendar for Monday morning, May 21, 2012. If you’re at just the right place in the middle-south China, you can watch an annular – or ring – eclipse of the sun on that day. It will be the first annular eclipse to take place since May 10, 1994, and the next one won’t come until October 14, 2023. An annular eclipse happens whenever the new moon swings directly in front of the sun, blocking out all but the outer portion of the solar disk from view. This kind of eclipse presents an apparent ring of fire – really, the outer edge of the sun – around the moon in the daytime sky at mid-eclipse.

This same eclipse will be visible from the western United States on May 20, 2012. This annular eclipse first can be seen from Texas and then go through south china. If you are in Guang zhou, the local sunrise is 5:43, the annular eclipse will begin at 6:09 and end at 7:17.

Under normal conditions, the Sun is so bright that it is difficult to stare at it directly. However, during an eclipse, with so much of the Sun covered, it is easier and more tempting to stare at it. Unfortunately, looking at the Sun during an eclipse is as dangerous as looking at it outside an eclipse, except during the brief period of totality, when the Sun's disk is completely covered.

Thus, how to watch an annular eclipse? Here are some ways I gather from the Internet.

Firstly, the safest way to view the Sun's disk is by indirect projection. This can be done by projecting an image of the disk onto a white piece of paper or card using a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or another piece of cardboard with a small hole in it (about 1 mm diameter), often called a pinhole camera.

Secondly, viewing the Sun's disk on a video display screen is safe, although the camera itself may be damaged by direct exposure to the Sun.

Beside the annular eclipse, there are another two wonders that can be seen in China during May. One is a meteoric shower, which caused by Halley's Comet, in 5, May, 2012. Another is called Mars co-moon, during which the red star Mars will go through the moon. This will happen at 29, May.

http://society.workercn.cn/c/2012/05/02/120502143935862161051.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse