Location: Kondiaronk Belvédère, Mount Royal
Date of photo: November 3 2013
Photographer: Martin New at Montreal in Pictures
There was quite a crowd gathered at the Kondiaronk Belvédère on Mount Royal yesterday morning to view the rare hybrid solar eclipse that occured at sunrise and (for Montreal) lasted until around 7.10AM – a duration of about 30 minutes.
A hybrid eclipse refers to when an eclipse shifts between a total and annular eclipse. At certain points on the surface of Earth it appears as a total eclipse, whereas at other points it appears as annular. On November 3 the total eclipse was viewable from the mid-Atlantic and parts of Africa, while the annular eclipse occured on the East coast of North America, Southern Europe and northern parts of South America.
Out of the approximately 12,000 solar eclipses that have been recorded since 1999 BC, about 600 have been hybrid eclipses – so a pretty rare event.