Easter Island awaits 'ring of fire' eclipse

Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean is famous for its instantly recognisable statues known as the moai.

And while the monuments draw tens of thousands of visitors a year to one of the world’s remotest inhabited territories, the island is likely to see another influx of visitors next month when an annular solar eclipse passes overhead.

The October 2 Pacific eclipse follows the total eclipse that crossed North America earlier this year. But unlike the blacked-out darkness of a total eclipse, an annular version has a halo of sun visible around the moon’s shadow.

The effect means an annular eclipse is sometimes called a "ring of fire" eclipse - a sight arguably more spectacular than a total eclipse in which the sun is blotted out.

On Easter Island, such an eclipse could make for doubly spectacular images, should there be light enough for skilled photographers to capture the iconic statues with the ring of fire in the sky above.

Also known as Rapa Nui after the Polynesian settlers who reached the island around a millennium ago and carved the famous statues, the volcanic Easter Island sits on the Ring of Fire, a 40,000-kilometer-long eruption and earthquake-prone tectonic belt that surrounds the Pacific Ocean.

Easter Island is likely to be the only place - other than from a ship - where views of the full annular eclipse will be possible come October 2.

The ring of fire or halo effect will be first visible in the central Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres west of Hawaii, with 95% of the annular eclipse then passing over nothing but ocean, according to space.com.

A partial annular eclipse will be visible from cities such as Honolulu, La Paz, Lima and the Chilean capital Santiago, from where there is a 5-hour flight to Easter Island.

A Chilean possession, Easter Island is almost 2,000 kilometres from Pitcairn Island, the closest inhabited territory, and is almost 3,000 kilometres off the coast of South America.

Europeans and North Americans can in the meantime view a rare form of partial lunar eclipse known as a Super Harvest Moon eclipse. The September 18 event is likely to be more impressive than most partial lunar eclipses, as it takes place during both the autumn equinox harvest moon and a supermoon period, which is when a full moon passes at its closest orbit to Earth, making it appear bigger than usual.