Annual Solar Eclipse: June 21, 2020 | UAE

The 2020 Annual Solar Eclipse

The annual solar eclipse happens today, June 21, 2020. A solar eclipse happens when the sun, moon and earth are aligned and the moon blocks the sun. Since the moon is smaller than the sun, there appears to be a ring of fire when the moon covers the face of the sun.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Here in the UAE, we were able to observe a partial solar eclipse where the sun was covered up to 86%. It happened from between 8:00am to 11:00am (GMT+4), with the peak at around 9:35am.

We almost missed this phenomena, mistaking the gloomy morning only to the humidity. LOL. Though I was able to see this in the news earlier, I totally forgot it to be today. Thankfully, @kennyroy messaged me and reminded me about it and I was able to take the kids out of the house at around the same time of the peak of the eclipse.

Eye Protection

It has to be noted that we MUST NOT look at the sun directly, as it may cause severe damage to our eyesight. Nope, normal sunglasses are not advisable too. We used 2 layers of xray film to safely view the eclipse.

I tried to capture the eclipse through my mobile phone camera

Well, you will see that futile attempt on this short video, while below are some pictures I took through the xray film.