An annular solar eclipse will be visible on Sunday 26 February from the southern hemisphere. The best place to observe it will be Latin America, though it will also be visible from Antarctica and the southernmost states of the African continent. Those living in the northern hemisphere, however, will have no such luck, as the eclipse will not be perceptible there.

The phenomenon, as reported by Lorenzo Badellino on 3Bmeteo.com, will be "rather curious, in that the sun will not be completely obscured by the Moon, as its outline will remain luminous as on a normal day". Unlike a total eclipse, an annular eclipse keeps the sun's corona visible because the diameter of the Moon, owing to its distance, is nonetheless smaller than that of the Sun. This is why, during an annular eclipse, the star at the centre of our solar system remains clearly visible in the form of a ring.

"The southern hemisphere," Badellino continues, "is thus set to experience an annular eclipse owing to the great distance the Moon is from the Earth at this point in its orbit, equal to approximately 400,000 kilometres." Conversely, "had the phenomenon occurred at the moment of the Moon's closest distance from the Earth (approximately 350,000 kilometres), we would most likely have been looking at a total eclipse."