In Europe, millions of people were waiting for the moment, which marked a rare solar eclipse in history. The eclipse coincided, with two other major celestial events: the spring equinox and a supermoon, and lasted for almost two minutes and 45 seconds. During this period, the moon totally masked the sun, resulting in darkness for the land. The astronomical spectacle was viewed best from the Svalbard archipelago in the Norwegian Arctic. However, in the U.K. the cloudy weather made it tough for the people to witness the partial eclipse. Sadly, they won’t be able to view another partial social eclipse until 2026.
The time during which the earth was overshadowed with darkness lasted for few minutes, but the entire event right from the time when the moon begins to cover the sun to when it completely obscured it lasted for almost two hours.
Solar eclipses occur rare, but the illusion of a supermoon can be viewed many times a year. It is the time when the moon comes closest to the Earth and appears larger than usual. The third spectacle spring equinox can be witnessed every year. It indicates the beginning of beautiful spring time in the northern hemisphere.
In this event, the most special and unusual thing was concurrence of all three events at the same time.
A solar eclipse is witnessed when the moon completely obstructs the view from Earth of the sun’s disk. It occurs mostly after every 18 months on average, and recurs at any given location once every 360 to 410 years.
A supermoon is an illusion as due to moon’s oval orbit, a full moon different in size when seen from Earth. It occurs on the perigee side of the moon’s orbit. Due to the proximity to earth, it is unusually bright and big. Last year, the parts of the United States recorded occurrence of three supermoons.