A solar eclipse plunges southern Chile into darkness

Thousands of people flocked to the sky to watch a two-minute solar eclipse on Monday as southern Chile and Argentina plunged into darkness.

Heavy rain threatened to prevent stargazers in Chile from seeing the eclipse, but at the last moment the clouds parted, making the phenomenon partially visible.

“It’s beautiful, it’s unique. The truth is that no one expected much to see it because of the weather and the clouds, but it’s special because it cleared up in time.

“It’s something you don’t see with your eyes, but something you feel with your heart,” Tordicilla said as he traveled 10 hours with his family to watch the eclipse.

This is the second total eclipse for Chile in the last 18 months.

By 1:00 pm (1600 GMT) thousands of tourists and residents had gathered.

“It gave me goosebumps,” said Cynthia Vega, a Pukan resident.

In Patagonia, Argentina, many families and foreigners set up camp between the towns of Villa el Chocone and Pidra del Aguila.

Although there was no rain, strong winds threatened to affect visibility.

Despite restrictions on the movement of COVID-19, nearly 300,000 tourists arrived in the Araucania region, about 800 kilometers south of the capital Santiago.

Dozens of amateur and professional scientists have set up telescopes on the slope of the Villarrica volcano – one of the most active in Chile – to observe this phenomenon as the moon travels between the sun and the earth.

The eclipse is to be seen across the Andes mountain range off the Pacific coast of Chile and along a 90-kilometer-wide corridor in Argentina.

In July 2019, 300,000 people in the Atacama Desert north of Chile were home to several observatories to watch a previous eclipse.

Major celestial events in 2021

January 3: Quadrantides meteor shower

May 6: Eta Aquarids meteor shower

August 12: Perseids meteor shower

December 4: A total solar eclipse occurs in Antarctica, South Africa, and the South Atlantic

December 14: Geminid meteorite.