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Ring of Fire
In an annular eclipse, the Moon blocks most of the Sun. Because of the relatively large distance to the Moon during this Earth-Moon-Sun alignment, the Moon did not have a large enough angular size to block the entire Sun. Those who witnessed the solar eclipse from a narrow path through Spain and Africa, however, were lucky enough to see the coveted Ring of Fire, a dark Moon completely surrounded by the brilliant light of the distant Sun. Pictured above is a Ring of Fire captured October 3, 2005 in unusually high resolution above Spain. The resulting image shows details of the granular solar surface as well as many prominences around the Sun.