PHOTOS: From Outer Space to Cyberspace, Nigeria’s Partial Solar Eclipse

Nigerians witnessed a partial eclipse of the sun on Sunday, November 3, 2013. According to Ikenna Okonkwo – a geo-scientist, blogger and university teacher: 

The eclipse actually what is known as a hybrid Eclipse. A hybrid eclipse occurs when a Solar eclipse is seen as Total and Annular at the same time. A total eclipse occurs when the silhouette of the Moon completely obscures the Sun, allowing the much fainter solar corona to be visible. In an Annular eclipse the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon. Usually the path of totality where a full (total or Annular) eclipse occurs is at best a narrow path with totality lasting about 2 minutes. On a much larger area observers get to see a partial eclipse.

Naturally, this event prompted reactions from Nigerians online. Many were enthused because they were witnessing another solar eclipse within a space of seven years, as seen in this tweet by Owolabi Caleb (@owocaleb):

Elijah Balogun (@EarlEternal), a digital media enthusiast, dedicated his 1,000th tweet to commemorate the event: 

Many Twitter users shared the pictures of the eclipse as observed from their homes. For instance, Ikenna (@Failedrift) shared this picture on his Twitter timeline:

Victor Olurnfemi (@mavol), a digital graphic designer, did as well: 

Some tweets were humorous. Nigerian writer Ayodele Olofintuade (@aeolofintuade) remarked: 

Nokwai (@chuksikeji), an entrepreneur, wrote:  

Lee_alifa, a student (@dlordna). thought that: 

Timmy (@lil_timmzy), tweeted this:  

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