Misty Mountain Solar Eclipse
The eclipsed sun glows brightly above Kab Mountain in Hungary in this image from skywatcher Tamas Ladanyi, taken on Jan. 4, 2011.
The eclipsed sun is surrounded by a water droplet diffraction corona. Water and dust in the air act as mini lenses, scattering the sun’s light so that its waves add together in some places and cancel out in others, creating a diffraction pattern called a corona made of concentric circles.
The eclipsed shape of the sun in this image has no effect on the corona. While the corona looks pearly white, there are subtle color differences caused by different wavelengths, or colors, released from the sun.
