Tomorrow morning, on November 3, 2013, those on the East Coast of the United States will get to witness a strange and relatively rare sight — the simultaneous occurrence of a sunrise and a solar eclipse. In order the witness the strange sight you’ll need to have a completely clear view of the eastern horizon though, so plan ahead and find a hill or tall building to watch from if you can.

While those in the US will certainly get a interesting show, it’s those in Africa that are really in for a treat — a total solar eclipse will be visible to those in the West/Central/East African nations of Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, sometime around midday.

As we reported previously: “If you’re watching from the Americas, the eclipse will already be in progress as the sun rises — those in Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East will experience the eclipse right around mid-day/early afternoon. When seen from Miami, maximum eclipse will see about 44% of the Sun’s disc covered by the Moon — in Boston maximum eclipse will see around 64% of the Sun’s disc covered. In Africa, the path of totality will move through Central Africa, from west to east, right around mid-day — bringing about a minute of temporary darkness.”

“The place of maximum eclipse will be a bit south of the Ivory Coast and Ghana, in the Atlantic Ocean, and at that place it will last for a full one minute and 39 seconds.”

A bit of background on what exactly a hybrid solar eclipse is — “a hybrid eclipse, also known as a annular/total eclipse, is a relatively rare type of solar eclipse that shifts over its progression between a total and annular eclipse. At some points appearing as a total eclipse and at others as an annular eclipse. So while it’s a somewhat rare event, it isn’t radically different than other solar eclipses.”





Make sure to check out the other great astronomical events of the year, see: Astronomy 2013, Comet ISON, Solar Eclipse, Supermoon, Lunar Eclipse, Geminids, Leonids, Super Venus, Etc.

Image Credits: NASA; Eclipse via Flickr CC