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If you were in Southeast Asia yesterday, you got to see a rare event in the heavens: A total solar eclipse. But, if for some reason you weren’t in Southeast Asia, you can check it out in the video above, which condenses the four-minute event down to thirty seconds.
A total solar eclipse happens roughly once a year, depending on how things shake out, and it’s a moment where the Earth, moon, and sun are in alignment, or syzygy. But wait, you ask, doesn’t the moon revolve around the Earth all the time? Why doesn’t this happen more often?
The orbit of the moon is both tilted and elliptical, so usually its shadow misses the Earth completely. In order for an eclipse to be seen at all, a lot has to go right at once, and you rarely see them in the same place twice. The U.S. will be observing a total solar eclipse in August of next year, the first total eclipse observable in America since 1998.
In other words, this is very rare to see and experience, and it’s a reminder that sometimes, science can be both weird and beautiful. Also, we like to imagine Buzz Aldrin saves his best insults for when the moon pulls an eclipse, which just makes it better.
(Via Time)