Annular eclipse — Arctic Canada & Greenland (2021)
A polar ring from Ontario over northern Greenland into Siberia — at Qaanaaq the ring sat on a low midnight-sun Sun.
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The moment of Annular eclipse — Arctic Canada & Greenland (2021): https://nowsky.org/e/annular-eclipse-2021 — opens at the right place and time, replayable, no login.
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The story
The annular eclipse of 10 June 2021 chose almost uninhabited ground. The path began in Polar Bear Provincial Park in northern Ontario, crossed Hudson Bay and Baffin Island, ran across northern Greenland, passed within a few hundred kilometres of the North Pole and ended in Yakutia in north-eastern Siberia. Most of the land under the shadow was ice and tundra.
Qaanaaq in north-western Greenland was one of the few settlements inside the track. In June the Arctic has the midnight sun, so the Sun hung low above the horizon all day and the Moon crossed it there. A total eclipse would have brought night-like darkness; as an annular, the sky stayed bright and only the ring glowed quietly near the horizon.
The sights outside the path are what most people remember. In eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States the Sun rose already partly covered — New York and Toronto saw a horned sunrise. Britain, Ireland and northern Europe had a 20–40% partial around midday.
Maximum annularity, 3 minutes 51 seconds, fell over the Arctic Ocean. The sky replay shows the ring on Qaanaaq's low midnight sun; switch the location to New York and the eclipsed sunrise is reproduced.
Why it matters
A polar eclipse breaks the assumption that eclipses look the same everywhere. In midnight-sun regions the Sun lingers at low altitude and the ring lies almost parallel to the horizon; the shadow also races faster near the poles, so the same eclipse is experienced very differently by latitude.
Scientific interest actually leaned toward the partial phases. A partially eclipsed sunrise is a rare chance to see the Sun through thick low-altitude air, and photographs of the refraction-flattened Sun and lunar limb fed atmospheric-optics studies.
The eclipse pairs with the Antarctic total eclipse of 4 December 2021. An Arctic annular and an Antarctic total in one year highlighted how seldom either pole gets a central eclipse at all.
How to watch
Annular track: northern Ontario → Hudson Bay → Baffin Island → northern Greenland (Qaanaaq around 10:35 UT) → Arctic Ocean → Yakutia. Partial phases were seen in Canada and the north-eastern US at sunrise, in Greenland and Iceland, and across Britain, Ireland, northern Europe and much of Russia. Not visible from Korea.
A low-Sun eclipse needs an open horizon, and an eclipsed sunrise needs the rising azimuth worked out in advance. Filters are still required — a Sun reddened by the atmosphere still delivers its infrared to the eye.
The sky replay tracks Qaanaaq's midnight sun; switch the location to New York or Toronto for the azimuth and time of the eclipsed sunrise.
See this for yourself — open that sky at that moment · replay the moment in the orbit view
Background
The eclipse is the 23rd of Saros 147. Its predecessor on 31 May 2003 was an annular over Iceland and northern Scotland; its successor on 21 June 2039 crosses Alaska and Greenland — a series that keeps returning to the Arctic.
Arctic eclipses are not rare in themselves, but a village inside the path is. Qaanaaq, formerly Thule, is one of Greenland's northernmost settlements, relocated in the 1950s when the air base was built, and briefly appeared on eclipse chasers' maps because of this event.
The Antarctic total eclipse of 4 December the same year ran entirely over the continent and the Southern Ocean. With both central eclipses at the poles, 2021 was a year in which most observers saw only partial phases.
The June 2021 annular eclipse belongs to Saros 147, and its path passed close to the North Pole — one of the most northerly annular eclipses ever seen. It ran from northern Ontario across Hudson Bay, through Qaanaaq in north-western Greenland, near the pole and down into eastern Siberia. At Qaanaaq in June the Sun never sets, and it stood about 20° high when the ring formed. In the north-eastern United States and eastern Canada the Sun rose already in partial eclipse — a “horned sunrise” — and dawn photographs from New York and Toronto were widely shared.
FAQ
How high was the Sun at Qaanaaq?
A low midnight sun, roughly 10 degrees above the horizon, so the ring lay almost parallel to the horizon.
What was the horned sunrise in New York?
The Sun rose already more than 70% covered, so the two tips of the remaining crescent looked like horns.
How long was maximum annularity?
3 minutes 51 seconds, over the Arctic Ocean.
Was it visible from Korea?
No. The path ran through the Arctic and neither Korea nor Japan saw even a partial.
Related
- The 2023 annular over the US West
- The 2024 North American total eclipse
- The 2020 solstice annular
- The Sun — object index
- The Moon — object index
Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.