AMAZING SOLAR ECLIPSE LOOKS MUCH MORE MESMERISING DURING SUNRISE

Amateur astronomer Elias Chasiotis has been fascinated by the sky since he was a young child. He's especially interested in eclipses, and he recently travelled to Qatar to witness the annular solar eclipse. Even though photographing the eclipse was hampered by clouds, Chasiotis was rewarded with something even more magnificent. The eclipse was already occurring as the sun rose above the waters, creating a unique optical illusion.

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day explained “The dark circle near the top of the atmospherically-reddened Sun is the Moon—but so is the dark peak just below it. This is because, along the way, the Earth's atmosphere had an inversion layer of unusually warm air which acted like a gigantic lens and created a second image.” 

The placement of Chasiotis was deliberate. Knowing that the eclipse would start at sunrise, he purposefully positioned himself in Al Wakrah in the hopes that his position over the water would produce a mirage. When it happens at a typical sunrise, this specific atmospheric optical phenomenon is known as the Etruscan Vase effect. Jules Verne, the renowned science fiction author, gave the optical illusion its name based on the shape it creates.

Chasiotis is more than happy with the images he took that day, despite being disappointed not to be able to witness the full annular solar eclipse, in which the moon completely obscures the sun, leaving only a ring of fire visible. He tells My Modern Met, "The feeling during the eclipse was out of this world." 

“The crescent sun rose in a deep red colour that reminded me of burning coal. At first, two horns were visible rising from the sea, which soon took the shape of a crescent. The distortions visible made it look even more idyllic! An annular eclipse followed, which is called ‘the ring of fire,' because the moon is not close enough to the Earth to block all of the sun. Unfortunately, clouds blocked my view and I missed the annular phase. When the eclipsed sun reappeared through the clouds it was a crescent again. Despite missing the main event, I was so rewarded by the sunrise itself that I didn't feel sorry at all.”