Slideshow: Greatest solar eclipse hits

Roger Ressmeyer / Corbis

See stunning images from past solar eclipses going back to the 1920s.

Launch slideshow

If you can't make it to the South Pacific's eclipse zone in time to watch the sun turn into a "ring of fire" on Thursday, you can still get in on the spectacle online.

The annular solar eclipse begins at 6:30 p.m. ET (22:30 GMT) in western Australia. Over the course of several hours, the moon's shadow will sweep across Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Pacific from east to west, fading into the sunset off the coast of South America.

Because of the relative position of moon, sun and Earth, the moon can't cover the sun's disk completely. For observers who are situated within a strip of Earth's surface that measures 100 to 140 miles (171 to 225 kilometers) wide and thousands of miles long, only the outer edge of the sun will remain uncovered. That's what produces the eerie ring of fire.

The sight will be much like what was visible during last May's annular solar eclipse, and the course of the eclipse will be similar to the Pacific path that was taken by the moon's shadow during last November's total solar eclipse.

If you are in the zone for the ring of fire, be careful: Even that slim ring of sunshine packs enough of a punch to burn your eyes, and you'll need to take precautions. Those precautions can take the form of eclipse-viewing glasses or filters, or pinhole-camera rigs that let you view the eclipse indirectly.

Caution should be the watchword as well for those who can observe the eclipse's partial phase from a wide swath of the Pacific, ranging from New Zealand to Indonesia and Hawaii, as shown in the animation below. NASA's Eclipse website provides further details, including precise time schedules for the eclipse in a variety of locales.

If you're entirely outside the eclipse zone, you won't be so sorely tempted to gaze at the sun. Instead, you can enjoy totally safe views of the eclipse online. Click on the links below for a few of the options:

Slooh Space Camera: Slooh's coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. ET, during the partial phase that leads up to annularity. Slooh's team will provide the commentary for live video feeds from Tennant Creek, Cape Melville National Park and Cairns in Australia. The show also will feature occasional shots of the unsullied sun from Arizona's Prescott Observatory. You can use a Web browser or Slooh's iPad app to tune in.

Coca-Cola Space Science Center: The Georgia-based center will provide a live video feed from Australia's Cape York starting at 5 p.m. ET.

Amateur webcams: Australian skywatcher Gerard Lazarus is gearing up to capture live video of the eclipse, and there may be other on-the-fly feeds. Follow the Twitter hashtag #ASE2013 for updates. 

Television Down Under: The eclipse is likely to make news Down Under, and it's worth checking Sky News Australia and 3News in New Zealand for TV coverage.

If you miss it: Check SpaceWeather.com, Space.com and Universe Today for images of the eclipse after it takes place. You'll also want to keep tabs on Geoff Sims (@beyond_beneath) and Colin Legg (@colinleggphoto) on Twitter.

If you catch it: Got pictures? Please feel free to share 'em with us via NBCNews.com's FirstPerson photo upload page, and we'll pass along a selection of eclipse pics.

More about the eclipse:

• All about the 'ring of fire' eclipse
• Australia to see second solar eclipse in six months
• Flash interactive: What causes a solar eclipse?

Tip o' the Log to Michael Zeiler and Amanda Bauer for eclipse tips.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Andrew Wall

Astrophotographer Andrew Wall captured images of the moon before and during the penumbral lunar eclipse (left and right, respectively). "The images were taken from my backyard in Paralowie, South Australia," he said in an email. Six frames were stacked to produce each image.

Did you catch today's eclipse? You probably didn't notice the penumbral lunar eclipse unless you knew it was coming — but fortunately, skywatchers around the world were clearly ready.

This photo by Australian astrophotographer Andrew Wall illustrates just how subtle the eclipse was. Earth's fuzzy shadow dimmed the bright lunar disk at the height of the eclipse, which translated to 9:33 a.m. ET today.

The dimming effect was muted because the moon traveled just through the very edge of the shadow this time around — and not through the deepest part of the shadow, as it did during last December's total lunar eclipse.

The prime viewing area included Australia and the Pacific as well as Alaska and most of Asia.

"There was a very subtle darkening of the lunar limb at totality; barely noticeable to the untrained eye," Pakistani skywatcher Ramiz Qureshi told SpaceWeather.com in a report from Karachi. "In fact, I nearly missed it until a friend reminded me."

Qureshi put together a close-up shot and a wider-angle photograph to create this composite view of the eclipse. We also received a picture from Terry Staats in Chiba City, Japan, via NBC News' FirstPerson photo-uploading page. If you missed today's subtle show, there'll be three replays next year — including a partial lunar eclipse on April 25 and penumbral eclipses on May 25 and Oct. 18.

For more views of today's lunar eclipse, as well as the total solar eclipse that took place two weeks ago, check out SpaceWeather.com's eclipse photo gallery.

Rob Kaufman

Rob Kaufman, an astrophotographer from Bright, Australia, also captured a pre-eclipse picture of the moon at 12:00 GMT Wednesday (left), and a picture at maximum eclipse at 14:34 GMT (right).

Ramiz Qureshi

A composite photo from Ramiz Qureshi in Karachi, Pakistan, shows the slightly dimmed moon above an industrial skyline.

Romeo Ranoco / Reuters

A penumbral eclipse of the moon is seen over Manila in the Philippines. The term "penumbral" refers to the partially shaded outer region of a shadow that an object casts. This type of eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the faint penumbral portion of Earth's shadow.

Terry Staats

Earth's shadow slightly darkens the moon over Chiba City in Japan.

More about lunar eclipses:

• Flash interactive: What causes a lunar eclipse?
• Why a lunar eclipse won't drive you loony
• Nine cool facts about lunar eclipses
• How super was that Supermoon?

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered via email. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

The dolphins didn't come out for today's total solar eclipse in the Coral Sea, but hundreds of tourists were on deck to catch our cruise ship's biggest show. And most importantly, the sun came out as well.

That was the whole point behind seeing the eclipse from the Dawn Princess, which has been making stops along Australia's northeast coast for the past week. It may not be the steadiest viewing platform, but an expert navigator can sail to a spot in the narrow track of totality where clouds won't spoil the view.

"This is the real advantage of being on a ship," Patricia Reiff, director of Rice University's Space Institute, told me during today's eclipse extravaganza.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes in front of the sun, and the partial phase of today's event could be seen from a wide swath of the Pacific. But the total phase — during which the moon's disk blots out the entire solar disk — is visible only from a strip of Earth's surface measuring thousands of miles in length and less than 100 miles in width. The Dawn Princess' southeast course from Australia's Port Douglas to Sydney was plotted out to put the ship and its nearly 2,000 passengers right in the middle of that track at eclipse time, which was 6:39 a.m. local time on Wednesday (on the Western Pacific side of the International Date Line).

By 4:30 a.m., Reiff and her group from EclipseTours.com staked out a prime spot on the port side of the ship's top deck, near at the stern. This was Reiff's 13th solar eclipse, but it was the first brush with totality for Andrea Pond, one of the tourists in the group. She was sailing on the Dawn Princess along with her husband, Stan, who was an eclipse-chaser long before he married Andrea.

"It's not everyone who wakes up at 4 in the morning to see a two-minute happening," Andrea said.

I was on the cruise with my wife, two of my brothers, my sister and a few friends, but Reiff let me tag along with her group as well. So I was with the other eclipse-chasers at about 5:45 a.m., just after sunrise, when German astronomer Joachim Biefang peered through his solar telescope and cried out "First contact!"

First contact was when the moon's disk began passing over the sun's disk. We had to wear freaky-looking solar-filter glasses to watch the moon slowly chew away at the sun.

Alan Boyle / NBC News

Rice University astronomer Patricia Reiff, at right, helps members of her tour group get ready for the total solar eclipse aboard the Dawn Princess.

Tonia Boyle

Alan Boyle watches the last stages of the sun's disappearance aboard the Dawn Princess.

Alan Boyle / NBC News

A single finger blots out the sun's glare just before the total solar eclipse.

Alan Boyle / NBC News

Tonia Boyle takes in totality during a cruise on the Dawn Princess.

Slideshow: Total solar eclipse seen from Australia

John Brecher / NBC News

Glimpse eye-opening scenes from Wednesday's total solar eclipse in the Southern Hemisphere.

Launch slideshow

The ship's course was nearly perfect: Once the sun climbed above a bank of clouds on the horizon, we had a wide-sky view. "Let's have a little gratitude, everybody," Reiff told her group, which had swelled to a couple of dozen of people in one of the ship's sweetest viewing spots.

Hundreds more staked out their own positions around the top deck. My family was along the rail, near the halfway point on the port side. My brother Steve and his wife, Joan, recalled how a troop of dolphins popped up on the surface during their 1998 eclipse cruise in the Caribbean — and they hoped it would happen this time as well. They speculated that the marine mammals would want to find out the reason for the darkening sea.

We kept looking back behind the ship in case the sea erupted with dolphins, but the sun was the center of attention. As we counted down to totality, we folded our fingers together and held them up to project crescent-shaped images onto the deck. Soon the sun's light faded to an eerie golden shade. "It's like a storm is coming," my sister Donna said.

In the moment before totality, the sun's crescent was transformed into a glowing circlet with a bright flash — the famous "diamond-ring effect." That's when the crowd erupted in a cheer, which was followed by oohs and ahhs as the diamond ring turned into a ghostly coronal ring around the totally blacked-out sun. The sky took on a velvety shade of dark violet, with Venus and the southern stars glittering above us.

I oohed and ahhed along with everyone else, and snapped a couple of fuzzy photographs. But mostly, I just marveled at the eerie sight. I imagined how freaked out ancient observers must have been when the sun disappeared, and how relieved they must have been when it returned.

Before we knew it, another diamond ring flashed, the sea and sky brightened again, and my fellow travelers basked in the afterglow.

"It was perfect," one tourist gushed. "I can die now."

"Let's turn the ship around and do it again," Biefang joked.

"If I were a smoker, I'd have a cigarette," Reiff said with a smile of satisfaction.

"Want to look for dolphins?" my wife, Tonia, asked me.

When we went back to the ship's stern, we didn't find any dolphins. But we did find Brian Verkaart, who had just gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Sue Yee Duong.

"Five years, seven months and 12 days ago we met," Verkaart said. "I caught her checking out my butt."

Alan Boyle / NBC News

Sue Yee Duong shows off the engagement ring she was given by her new fiance, Brian Verkaart. It was her third diamond ring, coming after two views of the total solar eclipse's "diamond-ring effect."

Verkaart, who now has three solar eclipses under his belt, decided that the 14th of November was the perfect day to propose. He explained that he and Duong often exchange text messages that read "143," which is shorthand for "I love you." After the eclipse's second diamond ring, Verkaart turned to her and said something like, "Gee, this is the 14th. It'd be great if there were three diamond rings — and here's that third diamond ring."

That's when he got on his knees, offered her the engagement ring and proposed. Duong was totally surprised, but she said yes. ("At least he had the common sense not to pop the question during totality," my brother Steve said when he heard the story.)

Now my family and most of the other passengers on the Dawn Princess have gotten back into the cruise routine. Reiff and her fellow eclipse-chasers are swapping photos and planning their next cruise to totality. Verkaart is faced with the challenge of figuring out how to top his diamond-ring surprise.

And the dolphins?

If they had feet, they'd be kicking themselves right now. They missed a heck of a show.

More about the eclipse:

• PhotoBlog: Why I follow solar eclipses 
• Crowd cheers Pacific solar eclipse
• Next date with totality: 2015
• Video: Nightly News recaps the eclipse
• Flash interactive: How a solar eclipse happens

My cruise on the Dawn Princess continues for a few more days, and then I'll be vacationing in New Zealand for another week. I might have a chance to write a postcard or two while I'm in Middle Earth, but regular postings to Cosmic Log won't resume until Nov. 27.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Slideshow: Take a virtual dive

Catlin Seaview Survey

See dozens of wonders from coral reefs and other exotic seascapes, courtesy of the Catlin Seaview Survey.

Launch slideshow

Thousands of images from Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other coral locales are being stitched together into an eye-popping array of 360-degree panoramas for Google Maps' Street View feature — but this million-dollar-plus project isn't just about pretty pictures. It's about sharing the wonders and the woes of the world's coral reefs with people around the globe.

"This will allow the 99.9 percent of the population who have never been diving to go on a virtual dive for the first time," said Richard Vevers, project director for the Catlin Seaview Survey.

In partnership with Google, the Seaview Survey has been mounting a series of expeditions to capture high-resolution imagery of the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reef locales. It's sponsored by Catlin Group Ltd., a global insurance group. The project went through a preview phase back in February, and since then, it has continued to ramp up. Even before the official unveiling, the Seaview Survey has gained more than 1.4 million fans on Google+.

"Now we are actually in full expedition mode," Vevers said. To celebrate Wednesday's official kickoff, the survey is staging its first public real-time dive at the Great Barrier Reef via a Google+ Hangout at 1:30 p.m. ET. It'll be the middle of the night in Australia, but it'll be getting toward midday at the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Monterey, Calif., where Vever and other Seaview Survey organizers are hanging out this week.

Here are some of the 360-degree, Street View-style goodies that are already available via Google Maps:

• Australia's Heron Island Resort, where you swim with sea turtles.
• Lady Elliot Island Underwater, where a manta ray is silhouetted in the sunlight.
• Wilson Island, Great Barrier Reef, where you pop your head up to watch a sunset.
• The Philippines' Apo Island, where you come face to face with coral.
• Maui's Molokini Crater in Hawaii, where divers drift nearby.
• Oahu's Hanauma Bay, where you watch snorkelers pass overhead.

Vevers and his colleagues aim to take 50,000 shallow-reef pictures, using a specially designed SVII camera. When all those images are stitched together into a continuous skein, the 360-degree panoramas will let users navigate their own way through one long virtual Google Maps dive. There'll also be a deep-reef survey, conducted using picture-snapping robots.

Scientists plan to analyze the photos using image-recognition software to get a quick read on coral reef health. That's a crucial issue for the decades ahead. Half of the ocean's coral communities have been lost over the past 40 years, said the survey's chief scientist, Ove Hoegh-Guldburg of the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute. The decline is due to a variety of causes, ranging from coastal water quality to overfishing to ocean warming and acidification, he said.

"The evidence of these changes is there, but people outside the scientific community don't understand the significance of those changes," Hoegh-Guldburg told me. "If we're going to tackle these global issues, we need everyone on the planet to understand what we are in danger of losing, and what we can do to stop the decline."

He said the Seaview Survey's biggest benefit will be to give people a greater appreciation of the world's coral reefs, whether they're Australian business executives or Russian grandmothers.

Sharing the seas' wonders
The Seaview Survey aims to conduct regular expeditions that can be shared via Hangouts and other live events. All the scientific data will be made public via an online Global Reef Record database, Hoegh-Guldburg said. He's also looking into ways to enlist volunteers to analyze coral reef pictures, an idea that's taken from the citizen-science playbooks for Zooniverse and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The survey is due to focus on the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea is due to run until the end of December, and then it'll move on to other locations around the globe, including Hawaii, the Philippines and Bermuda. Hoegh-Guldburg said the survey's tools and techniques are designed to be adapted easily for a wide range of coral reef settings — including countries that haven't been able to assess their own coral reefs.

"Many of these countries know that their reefs are in trouble, but they don't know how much they're losing, or where they're losing the most," Hoegh-Guldburg said. "This can help them prioritize. If you don't prioritize, it's very hard to get traction."

The way he sees it, the Catlin Seaview Survey is coming just in time.

"Everybody is waking up to the realization that this is a critical decade," Hoegh-Guldburg said. "We're making decisions that could haunt us for hundreds of years if we don't get them right. It's now or never." 

More Google Street View goodies:

• Google maps ancient Mexican ruins
• Google tours NASA's Kennedy Space Center
• Take a Death Valley drive with the click of a mouse
• Google view of Amazon (the real Amazon) now live

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.