Syzygy

Photos of the sun (something is interesting about these).

The lens flare captures the 90% partial eclipse that occurred in northern New Zealand yesterday morning. Only a few parts of Australia witnessed the total eclipse. The giant halo captured in the third pic was visible without a camera for about 15 minutes.

Here on the Karikari peninsula the light dimmed for about an hour or so, the most noticeable change was that the ambient temperature stayed around 10'C until past noon. On most sunny days, it nears 20'C as soon as the sun has been up for a few hours. (I know, all of you in Vancouver just feel so sorry for us right about now.) 

I read in a news article that a total solar eclipse is a type of syzygy, when three celestial bodies line up. (Now don't you wish you could play that one in a scrabble game.) The next total eclipse is in 2015.