The Ring of Fire eclipse is an annular solar eclipse that occurs when the Moon covers the Suns center, leaving the Suns visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” or annulus around the Moon. During this eclipse, the Moon appears relatively small in the sky, so it does not fully cover the disk of the Sun, leaving a thin outer ring. The point of greatest eclipse, where viewers could see a ring of fire lasting 5 minutes and 17 seconds, occurred off the coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The eclipse was visible from a similar region, crossing eight U.S. states from Oregon to Texas. The most scenic places to see the ring of fire were in the U.S. Southwest and at the Mayan temple at Edzná on Mexicos Yucatán Peninsula. To witness the incredible ring of fire, viewers needed to be within the 125-mile path of annularity. The whole event took about three hours, but annularity only lasted about five minutes. To safely view this event, viewers had to use solar filters at all times.