Yesterday morning, New Zealanders were lucky to see a partial solar eclipse. This occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. In Queensland, Australia, there was a total eclipse – total darkness for about two minutes. A partial eclipse means the moon blocks off part of the sun.
The eclipse started around 9.30am and lasted about one and a half hours. At its peak, the sun looked like a thin smile because the moon covered most of the sun. In the Far North of New Zealand, 91% of the sun was covered.
People were told not to look at the sun directly because it could damage their eyes. They could use special solar glasses.
The next solar eclipse like this for New Zealand will be July 22nd 2028 so a solar eclipse is rare.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth passes between the sun and the moon.
Vocabulary
• partial – adjective from part
• eclipse – shut out the light, become dark
• solar – adjective from sun
• total – all, 100%
• peak – maximum
• rare – not often
• lunar – moon
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your article seem to
be running off the screen in Opera. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you
know. The layout look great though! Hope you get the issue
fixed soon. Many thanks
I had no problem with Opera.