ECLIPSE: St. Michael Photographer Snares Celestial Moment

For a moment, as the sun setttled in the west on a clear Sunday evening after what had been a hot and murky weekend, there was a piece of that big orange ball missing. 

What we saw was the first annular solar eclipse visible to residents of the United States in more than 18 years. 

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, creating the so-called "Ring of Fire" that was visible only west of the Mississippi River last weekend (which is why it was up for such a short time here in Minnesota). 

The spectacular phenomenon was captured by local photographer  of local business HJS Photo Gallery. She was able to get the image before the sun sunk down on the western horizon Sunday night. 

Do you have an image of the eclipse? Post it here in our community photo gallery, which is under the Pics and Clips tab on our main menu bar.