Ring Of Fire: Indian Ocean To See Solar Eclipse - PICTURES

             








Astronomer Jay Pasachoff used a specially equipped camera to capture images of the January 26, 2009, annular eclipse from the Indonesian island of Java.

Pasachoff, chair of the International Astronomical Union's working group on eclipses, has received funding from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration to study the sun during the total solar eclipse on July 22, 2009. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

"There is little scientific research that can be done at annular eclipses, unlike the situation with total solar eclipses, when otherwise invisible parts of the sun come into view," Pasachoff told National Geographic News in an email.

But annular eclipses can be important, he added, for practicing photography techniques and for getting the public excited about astronomy.