november: total eclipse

This month there will be two eclipses. The first is a lunar eclipse, in which the Earth's shadow covers the Moon, visible from much of the world. The second is a solar eclipse which can only be seen from the areas where the Moon's much smaller shadow crosses the Earth.

This image is a composite of photographs of the solar eclipse of July 1991. The Moon's disc exactly covers the bright circle of the Sun's photosphere, allowing us to see the thin streamers of hot gas which make up the corona.

Image: © Steve Albers, Dennis di Cicco, Gary Emerson.