'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse to Cut Across the Americas, Stretching from Oregon to Brazil

Astronomer Yuri Pena shows how to use before handing out special protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse to tourists and residents in Campeche, Mexico October 13, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Astronomer Yuri Pena shows how to use before handing out special protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse to tourists and residents in Campeche, Mexico October 13, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero
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'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse to Cut Across the Americas, Stretching from Oregon to Brazil

Astronomer Yuri Pena shows how to use before handing out special protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse to tourists and residents in Campeche, Mexico October 13, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Astronomer Yuri Pena shows how to use before handing out special protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse to tourists and residents in Campeche, Mexico October 13, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Romero

A rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun cuts across the Americas on Saturday, stretching from Oregon to Brazil.
For the small towns and cities along its narrow path, there was a mix of excitement, worries about the weather and concerns they'd be overwhelmed by visitors flocking to see the celestial event, also called an annular solar eclipse.
Unlike a total solar eclipse, the moon doesn’t completely cover the sun during a ring of fire eclipse. When the moon lines up between Earth and the sun, it leaves a bright, blazing border.
Saturday’s path: Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas in the US, with a sliver of California, Arizona and Colorado. Next: Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil. Much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere gets a partial eclipse.
Viewing all depends on clear skies — part of the US path could see clouds. NASA and other groups planned to livestream it.
With a chance of rain in its forecast, the small town of Reedsport near Oregon's Pacific Coast moved its eclipse festival inside so that a bounce house and games wouldn’t get soaked in the mud.
"But we’re still hoping that we might get a glimpse of it,” said city official Rosa Solano.
Weather was less of a concern in tiny Baker, Nevada, where the population hovers around 100. Inn and general store owner Liz Woolsey made T-shirts and planned a slate of activities including a drum circle and a dance party. Her seven rooms have been booked for over a year, The Associated Press reported.
“For a little place, we’re putting on a good show," said Woolsey, who became an eclipse enthusiast after seeing the 2017 total solar eclipse that swept the US from coast to coast.
Tens of thousands could get a double treat in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For the city's annual air balloon fiesta, which ends this weekend, hundreds of colorful hot air balloons lift off around dawn, hours before the eclipse briefly dims the skies.
Colombia’s Tatacoa desert was playing host to astronomers helping a group of visually impaired people experience the eclipse through raised maps and temperature changes as the moon blots out the sun.
At the Cancun Planetarium, young visitors built box projectors to indirectly and safely view the ring of fire. The ancient Maya — who called eclipses “broken sun” — may have used dark volcanic glass to protect their eyes, said archeologist Arturo Montero of Tepeyac University in Mexico City.
Towns and national parks in the path braced for a huge throngs. Officials in Oregon's Klamath County urged residents to stock up on groceries and fill their gas tanks in case traffic backs up on its two-lane highways. Utah's Bryce Canyon expected Saturday to be the park's busiest day of the year, spokesperson Peter Densmore said. Brazil's Pedra da Boca state park, known for its rocky outcrops for climbing and rappelling was also expecting crowds.
The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it’s back to normal — is 2 1/2 to three hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location.
Next April, a total solar eclipse will crisscross the US in the opposite direction. That one will begin in Mexico and go from Texas to New England before ending in eastern Canada.
The next ring of fire eclipse is in October next year at the southernmost tip of South America. Antarctica gets one in 2026. It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the US, and Alaska will be the only state in its direct path.



Taiwan Bounty Hunters Kill Invading Iguanas as Numbers Soar

This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows bound iguanas captured by hunters on the ground in Pingtung. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng / AFP)
This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows bound iguanas captured by hunters on the ground in Pingtung. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng / AFP)
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Taiwan Bounty Hunters Kill Invading Iguanas as Numbers Soar

This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows bound iguanas captured by hunters on the ground in Pingtung. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng / AFP)
This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows bound iguanas captured by hunters on the ground in Pingtung. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng / AFP)

Armed with a slingshot, Taiwanese bounty hunter Wu Cheng-hua bends sideways and aims his lethal weapon up at a green iguana, one of tens of thousands in the crosshairs of a government cull.

Taiwan's iguana population has exploded since the spikey-backed giant lizards were introduced from Central and South America more than 20 years ago as exotic pets.

Many escaped, or were dumped, and have bred rapidly in the warm climate of the island's south, invading neighborhoods and ravaging farmers' crops, Agence France Press reported.

After Wu finishes his shift at a breakfast eatery, he joins a group of hunters hired by the Pingtung County government, which pays up to NT$500 (US$15) per iguana.

"Sometimes we've been lucky and caught 300 iguanas in a day," Wu, 25, told AFP.

"Sometimes we were not so lucky and caught two, three or a dozen."

Carrying harpoon slingshots used for spearfishing and wearing rubber boots, the hunters crane their necks as they scan the thick forest for iguanas, which live in the canopy.

There are more misses than hits as the men fire their stainless steel darts at the prehistoric-looking creatures high up in the trees and shielded by leaves and branches.

AFP journalists watch as an iguana plunges several meters to the ground and runs for its life. Another is shot multiple times before it is pulled out of the tree still alive.

The men bind the legs of the captured iguanas to stop them escaping and leave them on the ground as they carry on hunting.

Taiwan began culling iguanas nearly 10 years ago and this year's target has been set at more than 100,000.

Experts and government officials say the effort is unlikely to eradicate the reptiles.

Some estimates put Taiwan's green iguana population at 200,000. A female iguana breeds once a year, laying dozens of eggs at a time.

"Climate anomalies" have fueled iguana numbers in recent years, said Chen Tien-hsi, a wildlife expert at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.

A lack of seasonal rain and unusually warm winters have increased hatching and survival rates of the young, which Chen said had created "a perfect storm for explosive population growth".

Pingtung County has ramped up its iguana cull from a few hundred a year in the beginning to 48,000 last year, Agriculture Department director-general Cheng Yung-yu said.

But Cheng said more effective "removal strategies" were needed.

"Despite significant manpower and resources being spent on their removal annually, their population continues to grow almost exponentially," he said.

Local farmer Cheng Hui-jung has watched iguanas decimate her family's red bean crop, even after they installed fishing nets to protect their fields from the herbivores.

The iguanas live in the dense bamboo growing between her land and a river, and come down during the day to feast on the red bean shoots.

"They move very fast and we couldn't catch them," Cheng told AFP, who worries some farmers will resort to cutting down the trees or give up planting crops altogether.

Regular people are being encouraged to get involved in the iguana cull.

Hsin Tseng-kuan said she was scared the first time she encountered an iguana on her farm and resolved to learn how to catch them.

"They're not even afraid of people," said Hsin, 58, one of more than 80 people taking part in a government training session where they are shown how to use a snare pole to lasso a soft toy iguana.

"When we first saw one, we were the ones who were scared," Hsin told AFP.

"It really looked like a small dinosaur."

Animal rights group PETA has urged Taiwan to find "non-lethal strategies" for controlling its iguana population or, if culling was deemed necessary, to "minimize suffering" of the creatures.

Several hunters told AFP they would be able to kill more efficiently and humanely if they were allowed to use air guns, the use of which is tightly controlled in Taiwan.

Wu and his colleagues end their hunt in the early evening after catching 14 iguanas in three hours.

The reptiles -- some of them alive and bloodied -- are laid on the ground before being tossed into a plastic box.

Hunters are required to euthanize the iguanas and keep them in a freezer until they can be incinerated by the government.

While hunting was physically harder than his cooking job, Wu said he liked helping farmers protect their crops.

"Otherwise, everything they grow will be eaten up," Wu said.

"It is very sad to see them like this."