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image credit & copyright: Elias Chasiotis




yes, but have you ever seen a sunrise like this ?

here, after initial cloudiness, the Sun appeared to rise in two pieces and during partial eclipse, causing the photographer to describe it as the most stunning sunrise of his life

the dark circle near the top of the atmospherically-reddened Sun is the Moon -- but so is the dark peak just below it

this is because along the way, the Earth's atmosphere had a layer of unusually warm air over the sea which acted like a gigantic lens and created a second image

for a normal sunrise or sunset, this rare phenomenon of atmospheric optics is known as the Etruscan vase effect

the featured picture was captured in december 2019 from Al Wakrah, Qatar

some observers in a narrow band of Earth to the east were able to see a full annular solar eclipse -- where the Moon appears completely surrounded by the background Sun in a ring of fire














































in apod.nasa.gov/apod