Monday's rare annular solar eclipse—best seen from areas in the Indian Ocean in the southern hemisphere—was Webcast by two University of North Dakota scientists renowned for their eclipse Webcasting expertise.

Astronomer Tim Young, associate professor of physics, and Ron Marsh, associate professor and chair of the department of computer science, were in Jakarta to witness the event—the first and only annular eclipse of 2009—and put it out live on the Web (see this Web site for views of the eclipse: http://www.sems.und.edu). The seven minute eclipse's west-to-east track occurred just after midnight Central Time.

"An annular eclipse happens when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun," said Young. "So the Sun during this kind of eclipse appears as a brilliant ring, or annulus ("ring" in Latin), surrounding the Moon." In a total eclipse, the Moon totally blocks the Sun, traversing the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia and ending in the southern Philippines.

It will be the only annular solar eclipse this year. The next one will be Jan. 15, 2010. The next total eclipse comes July 22 and will be visible from India and China.

Both lifelong stargazers, Young and Marsh, are building a global reputation and an avid following for their meticulously researched, produced, and presented multimedia Webcasts and podcasts. With simultaneous and near-instant video images, audio tracks, and online quick-response chatrooms, they deliver stunning images to those of us who can't travel half-way round the world to watch an event that has captured humanity’s attention for eons.

"It's still magical every time for me," said Young, who teaches his college classes how to track eclipses and record phases of the moon as part of his "learn-by-doing" approach to science education. “Solar eclipses are important because they tell us so much about what is going on in our own solar system.”

The UND eclipse team’s primary goal with their Webcasting projects is to show young school kids how science really works. "We aim to educate people—especially younger children—about how many eclipses there are per year and why," said Young.

Contacts:
Eclipse Web site: Website http://www.sems.und.edu
Tim Young, UND Physics, (701) 777-4709, tim.young@und.edu
Ron Marsh, UND Computer Science, (701) 777-4013, marsh@cs.und.edu
Juan Miguel Pedraza, UND Office of University Relations, (701) 777-6571 juanpedraza@mail.und.nodak.edu