Explanation:
The daytime sky grew dark,
the temperature dropped, and lights came on
as Chongqing, China, was plunged into the
Moon's shadow during the
July
22nd total
solar eclipse.
This serene, wide-angle view of the event looks to the east
over the large, populous city from a newly constructed park.
Despite thin clouds, it captures the
shimmering solar corona
just before the end of the eclipse total phase.
This total solar eclipse occurred
near Aphelion, the point in
Earth's elliptical orbit farthest from the Sun,
and so the Sun was near its smallest apparent size.
It also occurred when the New Moon was
near Perigee, the closest point
to Earth in the Moon's elliptical orbit, making the Moon near its
largest apparent size.
The small Sun and large Moon made this the
longest solar eclipse of this century.
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