Cheers and shouts of joy erupted as a rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun made its way across the Americas. From Oregon to Brazil, millions had waited with anticipation.
At Santa Fe Community College they gave away 500 eclipse glasses and a couple of hundred people were on campus, some from long distances away to watch the event.
John Harvey and his wife made the trek from Loveland, Colorado to watch the annular eclipse with this telescope in hand.
He was stationed in the parking lot near the Health and Sciences Center and was providing views for anyone wanting to see.
Harvey says he came to Santa Fe after checking online for some good viewing locations and came across the event on the SFCC website.
“I’m kind of a lightweight amateur astronomer so I go out in the backyard or up in the mountains in the Loveland area and look,” he said. “I was admiring some of the wide open spaces between here and Trinidad and thinking ‘What a great place to have a telescope.”
The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it’s back to normal — lasted 2 1/2 to three hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion was from three to five minutes, depending on the location.
Next April, a total solar eclipse will crisscross the U.S. in the opposite direction. That one will begin in Mexico and go from Texas to New England before ending in Canada.
The next ring of fire eclipse is in October next year at the southernmost tip of South America. Antarctica gets one in 2026. It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the U.S., and Alaska will be the only state in its direct path.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.