An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth, 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.
I drove 400 miles from my home in Southern California to just North of St George, Utah. Six hours each way and a total of 800 miles in one day. I setup on a side-road next the Veterans Memorial Highway (I15) along with several other people, and observed the Annular eclipse just four miles South of the center line. First-Contact through Third-Contact were all observed, however the Sun set shortly before Fourth-Contact.
Imaging Telescope: Astro Physics 130GTX f6
Camera: Canon T3i
Mount: Astro Physics Mach-1
Thousand Oaks T2 Solar Filter
Data Imaged on May 20, 2012.
Data acquisition & Processing by David Churchill.
Annular Solar Eclipse of May 20, 2012
Location: Longitude: 113d 13′ 44.6″ W. Latitude: 37d 27′ 18.72″ N
First-Contact: 00:23 UT.
Second-Contact: 01:32 UT.
Maximum Eclipse: 01:34 UT.
Third-Contact: 01:36 UT.
Fourth-Contact: 02:37 UT.
Sunset: 02:17 UT.
Saros Series: 128, Member: 58 of 73
Annular Totality Duration: 4m 23s