Vicksburg’s Annular eclipse viewing party

Published 4:59 pm Tuesday, October 17, 2023

By Tracye Prewitt

An Annular eclipse was visible in Vicksburg on Saturday, but what is an Annular eclipse?

An Annular eclipse is when the moon is centered in front of the sun but doesn’t completely obscure the sun. Instead, a ring of sunlight is visible around the moon’s edges.

This circle of light is often referred to as the “ring of fire,” or annulus. In Vicksburg, the sun only covered 76.4 percent of the sun’s surface, so there was no ring of fire visible.

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Our next solar eclipse will be the total eclipse in April 2024 when the moon will cover between 80-90% of the sun’s surface here in Vicksburg.

The Vicksburg National Military Park (VNMP) held an eclipse viewing event. The park wanted area residents as well as visitors to have a way to view the eclipse in a safe manner.

VNMP staff provided eclipse-viewing classes to everyone in attendance and also made eclipse-viewing educational for area children with eclipse workbooks.

The children who participated in the workbook program were sworn in and given a special Junior Ranger Badge.

One viewer said witnessing an eclipse made him understand why the ancient peoples of the world considered the sun a god. He said watching the eclipse gave him chill bumps.

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