Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/26/2020
By: Lee Hsien-feng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 26 (CNA) An annular solar eclipse will take place on this year's summer solstice on June 21, available to be seen in parts of Taiwan, with the Taitung County government planning to hold a public event for the eclipse that day.

The astronomical phenomenon occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, covering the sun's center and leaving the sun's visible outer rim, or corona, to form an annulus around the moon, according to Yang Yi-ching (楊義清), president of the Taitung Astronomical Association.

The eclipse will start at about 2:51 p.m. and end at 5:26 p.m., with people in parts of Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung Nantou, Hualien and Taitung, as well as the outlying Penghu and Kinmen islands able to see 98 percent of the sun covered during the process, while those in other areas will only find the sun at around 94 percent dark, according to Yang.

The spectacle will not occur again until 2070 in Taiwan, when the eclipse will pass through only parts of Pingtung.    [FULL  STORY]