There will be an unusual and rare hybrid eclipse that will be visible in parts of Australia, Southeast Asia, and other areas in the South Pacific on April 20 of this year.
An eclipse happens when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. There’s different types of eclipses, which is generally determined by how and how much the moon’s disc blocks out the sun’s light.
The term eclipse is derived from the Latin eclipsis, which itself is derived from Greek ekleipsis meaning “an abandonment,” literally “a failing, forsaking,” from ekleipein “to forsake a usual place, fail to appear, be eclipsed.” During a solar eclipse the sun isn’t actually “abandoning” or “forsaking” us; what causes the darkness is that we are in the shadow of the moon.
The most dramatic such event is a total lunar eclipse, when the moon completely obscures the sun and day can literally turn to dusk momentarily. The whole world darkens, temperatures drop and animals (including humans) freak out.
As you can easily guess, a partial solar eclipse is when the moon just partially covers the sun. This is an event that can easily be missed if you don’t know how to safely observe it, which just demonstrates how crazy powerful the sun is — it can be halfway blocked in the middle of the day and most people won’t even notice.
Then there is the annular eclipse, which is a fascinating alignment when the moon almost covers the entire sun, but its outer layers manage to shine around the edges of the lunar disc, creating an eerie “ring of fire” appearance.
Essentially, what type of eclipse you get from a given location is all a matter of the curvature of the Earth combined with basic geometry, dependent on the alignment of the sun, moon and your specific spot on the surface of the planet.
With the April 20 eclipse we get all three of these main types of eclipse in one.
Biblical significance of eclipses
In Christianity, an eclipse is related to an impending apocalypse — either literally or allegorical — as a sign of God’s judgment of all nations or a particular place. (Acts 2:20, NWT)
Jewish believes that eclipses are celestial signs of God based on what Genesis 1:14 states: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs. . . .’”
An eclipse (a luminary being stricken) is a prime example of such a sign. As the Talmud states: “When the luminaries are stricken, it is an ill omen for the world. To what can we compare this? To a king of flesh and blood who prepared a feast for his servants and set a lantern to illuminate the hall. But then he became angry with them and said to his servant: “Take the lantern from before them and seat them in darkness.”
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Jason Jeth Newshub 