Forbes – In 2019, Christmas comes a little late for nature lovers, sky-watchers and astronomers as the decade’s final solar eclipse rips across the globe. Unlike the events of August 21, 2017’s “Great American Eclipse”, this one won’t be visible from North America, and nor will it be as impressive as that day’s total solar eclipse. What begins at 03:43 a.m. Universal Time on December 26— that’s 22:43 p.m. EST and 19:43 p.m. PST on Christmas Day—is an annular solar eclipse. Since a New Moon is slightly further away than
usual, it will appear smaller in the sky so it will only block the center of the Sun’s disk. Observers will, therefore, see a ring around the Sun, and for a maximum of 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The phenomenon—often referred to as a “ring of fire” or “ring of light”—will be visible at sunrise in Saudi Arabia, and then slightly higher in the sky from a narrow path through Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, southern India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. The Sun will then set as a “ring” east of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. READ MORE
