The April 30, 2022 partial solar eclipse is the first eclipse of the first eclipse season of 2022. It will be visible starting in the southeast Pacific Ocean, the edge of Antarctica, and southern South America.
The Sun is still super bright, too bright to look at meaning that there is not a safe time to look at the eclipse without safe solar viewing glasses, solar filters, or other safe viewing methods.
The animation below shows the eclipse over the globe from the vantage point of the moon.
An animation of the April 30, 2022, partial solar eclipse from the moon’s vantage point. The lightly shaded circle with the black outline is the penumbral shadow. The partial eclipse is visible inside the penumbra. Animation by Fred Espenak and Michael Zeiler.
SOURCE: timeanddate.com
You may have often heard that solar eclipses are rare. That statement gives the idea that they don’t happen very often. They aren’t rare in occurrence since we get on average 2 per year. What makes them rare is not when but where they happen. Earth is a very big place and covered mostly with water. The path and extent of solar eclipses are comparatively small. Eclipses usually happen in very remote places, over the ocean, or in this case both.
A map of the partial solar eclipse on April 30, 2022. The path is across the southeast Pacific, a tiny piece of Antarctica, and southern South America. Key to Solar Eclipse Maps here. Image via Fred Espenak.
A map showing where the May 15-16, 2022 lunar eclipse is visible. Contours mark the edge of the visibility region at eclipse contact times. The map is centered on 63°52’W, the sublunar longitude at mid-eclipse. credit: NASA SVS
The second eclipse season for 2022 is October-November with a partial solar eclipse on October 25 and a total lunar eclipse on November 7-8. More to come.