Success also came for two groups of eclipse-junkies who took to the sky from Punta Arenas, Chile, aboard a pair of chartered 787 Dreamliners. From there, the gloriously eclipsed Sun sat 14В° above the horizon at roughly local midnight, though viewers had to witness it in the brutal cold of late вЂњspring,вЂќ near вЂ“20вЊ (вЂ“4вЏ). In the end, the most daring eclipse-chasers - those who ventured to the outpost at Union Glacier in Antarctica (79в„6вЂІS, 83вЃ6вЂІW) - had the best views. The Moon moves over the Sun as it approaches totality, as seen aboard a ship in the Antarctic Ocean.ДЄccording to Jay Anderson, a Canadian meteorologist who specializes in eclipse-day weather, those on Antarctica had the best chance of seeing the eclipse, whereas the odds of success were against anyone venturing by ship to the accessible locations of the Southern Ocean. Because of this unusual вЂњover the poleвЂќ eclipse geometry, the MoonвЂ™s shadow didnвЂ™t sweep west to east in longitude, as it usually does, but instead raced east to west as it crossed Antarctica. However, because the event happened just a few weeks before the December solstice, the portions of Antarctica that lay within the path were experiencing constant daylight. Second, the eclipse track mostly crossed the longitudinal hemisphere of Earth facing away from the Sun, during what would ordinarily be nighttime hours. Meanwhile, the only inhabited places that got to see even a partial solar eclipse were on the southern tip of Africa, Tasmania, and bits of southeastern Australia and New ZealandвЂ™s South Island. Only a few thousand people were positioned to see it. Land-wise, the path of the MoonвЂ™s dark shadow touched only Antarctica and the tiny South Orkney Islands as it swept across Earth. First, totality occurred in the most sparsely populated region of the entire planet.

Much like the annular eclipse that preceded it in June, the total solar eclipse on December 4, 2021, was challenging to witness.Дecember 4thвЂ™s event was unusual in two important respects. The shadow swept rapidly across the Southern Ocean, offering up to 1.9 minutes of totality in the frozen Antarctic terrain surrounding the Weddell Sea. The MoonвЂ™s narrow shadow reached EarthвЂ™s surface at a very oblique angle that day, creating a skinny but stretched-out oval of darkness over ground and sea. Early morning on December 4th, a few thousand adventurous travelers crowded the decks of cruise ships, boarded specially chartered planes, or stepped out into AntarcticaвЂ™s frigid air - all with their hearts thumping in anticipation of astronomyвЂ™s greatest spectacle: a total eclipse of the Sun.

Solar eclipse shade 14