People in parts of the Northern Hemisphere looked up to the sky to see a "ring of fire" early Thursday.
The first solar eclipse of 2021 produced some dazzling images as the moon passed between the sun and Earth but didn't fully block out the sun's light, leaving the moon looking like a dark disc encircled by a ring of the sun.
Skywatchers in parts of northern Russia, Greenland and Canada were able to witness the annular eclipse for about four minutes before sunrise at 4:41 a.m. EST on Thursday.
For much of the U.S. and Canada, it was less a ring of fire and more of a crescent-shaped moon that appeared before and shortly after sunrise because it was a partial solar eclipse and not a full one. In a partial eclipse, the moon looks bigger against the sun, making the sun appear like a Pac-Man taking a bite out of the moon.
The partial solar eclipse was visible in parts of the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest and northern Alaska starting at 5:25 a.m. EST, according to NASA.
The scene like something out of "Blade Runner 2049" came on the heels of last month's "super flower blood moon," a total lunar eclipse that gives the moon a reddish appearance at the same time the moon appears bigger in the sky because it is slightly closer to Earth. It was seen over eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean and areas west of the Rockies in the U.S.
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