Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. Did you see this morning’s dramatic partial solar eclipse?

Imagine standing beneath an afternoon sky when suddenly the world around you darkens in the middle of summer. Birds fall silent. Temperatures drop. The glowing halo of the Sun’s outer atmosphere ...

It's dawn, the birds are chirping, and the mist is dissipating—revealing a sun that looks strangely like a crescent moon. That's the scene folks in New Zealand will wake up to on the morning of ...