The Earth, moon and sun will align again for the second time in as many weeks to create a solar eclipse that will be visible for part of Canada and the United States — but only if Mother Nature cooperates and provides clear skies, according to AccuWeather service.
On May 26, the moon passed through Earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse, and on June 10, the roles will be reversed as the moon casts a shadow on the Earth during the first of two solar eclipses in 2021.
This event will be a far cry from the Great American Eclipse of 2017 when day turned to night from Oregon to South Carolina, but it will still be an impressive show for those in its path.
The upcoming celestial alignment will create an annular solar eclipse, otherwise known as a “ring of fire” eclipse as the moon will be slightly farther away from the Earth than normal, meaning it will not quite be large enough to block out the sun entirely.
The result will be a halo of sunlight around the moon during the height of the eclipse, but this spectacle will only be visible to the remote areas of northern Ontario, far northwestern Greenland, around the North Pole and eastern Russia.
However, millions of people will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse.
Right at sunrise on Thursday morning, people across the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada will be able to see, if skies are clear enough, more than half of the sun blocked out by the moon.
This includes metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.