Hybrid Eclipse - November 3, 2013

I failed to post about this last week, but figure I should say something now in case there's any confusion about yesterday's hybrid solar eclipse.  One of the reasons I didn't post about it was the location.  It was only visible in the United States near the east coast and since I don't live near the east coast, I didn't pay much attention to it.  However, there was something very interesting about this eclipse.  It wasn't a total eclipse, an annular eclipse, or a partial eclipse.  It was a hybrid eclipse.  So what's a hybrid eclipse?

First of all, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves directly between the Sun and the Earth and casts a shadow onto the Earth's surface.  See below.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks the entire disk of the Sun.  A partial eclipse occurs when the Moon only blocks part of the disk of the Sun.  An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon is a bit farther away from the Earth and doesn't quite block the entire disk of the Sun.  The Moon's apparent size is smaller than that of the Sun.  Below is an example of an annular eclipse.

What made Sunday's eclipse special is that it was a hybrid between an annular eclipse and a total eclipse.  For part of the eclipse's path across the Earth's surface it was an annular eclipse and for part of the path it was a total eclipse.  Hybrid eclipse's such as this are very rare.  Of the 12,000 solar eclipse (any type) over the last 5,000 years, only 4.8% were hybrids (as noted by Universe Today)!!!

If you had a chance to see it, congrats.  Unfortunately most people on Earth were not in the right place at the right time to see this one.