Antarctica’s long summer polar day was briefly obscured on Saturday by a total solar eclipse. This scene witnessed by few people. The continent around Antarctica is uninhabited, although there are research stations where scientists work.
Among the eyewitnesses was Raúl Cordero of the University of Santiago (Chile). He said the eclipse was very visible. There were also a few ‘eclipse tourists’, who paid as much as $35,000 to watch the eclipse. The total, i.e. the length of time the Moon completely blocks the Sun as seen from Earth, lasted less than two minutes.
NASA has broadcast live images of the solar eclipse from Union Glacier Camp, a thousand kilometers north of Antarctica. This is the only camp that guests can stay in in the summer season.
The previous total solar eclipse in Antarctica was on November 23, 2003. The next time will be in 2039.
A partial eclipse can be seen from southern Africa, the southern tip of South America, and the far southeast of Australia.