Scientists reported an eclipse of the Sun by a super moon on Friday the 13th. On the radio Sputnik radio, the astronomer Igor Lopin told about the significance of this phenomenon for science.

Private eclipse of the Sun, which could be observed in Australia and Antarctica, occurred on Friday, July 13. The event was reported by the press service of the Moscow Planetarium. It was specified that it would be impossible to discern the phenomenon on the territory of Russia, as well as throughout the Northern Hemisphere of the planet.

The event began at 04.48 Moscow time at sunrise in the southwestern part of the Indian Ocean, and ended at 07.14 Moscow time between New Zealand and Antarctica.

On land, a partial eclipse with a very small phase could be observed only in Australia in the vicinity of the city of Melbourne and on the island of Tasmania. The largest phase of the eclipse will be only 0.34 (the moon will close a little more than one third of the disk of the Sun).

The eclipse occurred at the time of the so-called superunion, an astronomical phenomenon that occurs when a full moon or a new moon coincides with the Moon's perigee, that is, at a minimum distance from the Earth.

Astronomer Ussuriyskoy Astrophysical Observatory Igor Lopin in the radio Sputnik radio told what phenomena are of greater interest for science.

"The greatest significance is the total solar eclipses, since they allow us to explore the outer regions of the solar atmosphere, the coronal regions of the sun, to obtain spectra, etc. And in the case of a partial eclipse, there is no such possibility, since there is light from the Sun's disk that does not allow us to observe the outer region solar atmosphere.This is more of a visual effect for the observer, "said Igor Lopin.

This is the second private eclipse of the Sun in 2018. In addition, one more is expected, which will happen on August 11. All the solar eclipses of this year are private. Noticeable phenomena will only occur in the circumpolar regions of the Southern (15.02 and 13.07) and Northern (11.08) hemispheres of the Earth.

Solar eclipses occur only when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun (the phase of the new moon). In one year there are from two to five similar phenomena. Private called the eclipse of the sun, in which the surface of the planet crosses only the penumbra of the moon, in contrast to the cone of the shadow and its continuation. On Friday, the axis of the moon's shadow passes at a distance of 2259 kilometers from the surface of the Earth.