Ring-of-fire eclipse: How to watch the rare phenomenon pass over Africa and the Middle East

It will be visible to everyone with an internet connection, too

The sky above the southern Indian Ocean is about to be lit by a blazing “ring-of-fire” solar eclipse.

The stunning display will be visible to people living across parts of the Middle East and Africa – who should as ever follow the guidelines for looking at the Sun. But the safer option for viewing it is on the internet.

A normal solar eclipse happens when the moon moves between the Earth and the sun, blocking out our star when viewed from earth. A ring-of-fire eclipse is also known as an annular eclipse and happens when the eclipse isn’t entirely total – because of the movement of the moon, some of the sun is visible around the outside of the moon, leaving a blazing ring of fire around the outside of the dark moon.

As such, it can arguably be more stunning than the normal total eclipse. The blazing orange of the sun can be seen more brightly than the darkness of the total solar eclipse, giving the event its dramatic name and lending an extra spectacle.

The changes are the result of the egg-shaped orbit that the moon takes around Earth. Because the distance between the moon the Earth changes over time, so does the apparent size of the moon when it’s set against the Sun.

The eclipse will be best visible on Africa’s west coast, in countries including Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Mozambique.

People looking at it there should either use special glasses or other kit like projectors. Nobody should ever look straight at the sun, even during an eclipse.

But it will also be visible online. Websites including Slooh will be running live streams so that people around the world can see it.

It will be visible through the morning of 1 September.

If you missed this one, the next solar eclipse will be a ring of fire. It will happen on 26 February next year, and will be visible across South America.

The next total solar eclipse will come in August 2017. That is expected to lead to the biggest tourist event in history as people go to the continental United States to see the first solar eclipse there for 37 years.