Antarctic Ring of Fire Eclipse: A Spectacle With Limited Access
On February 17, 2026, an annular solar eclipse will trace a 4,282 km path over Antarctica, creating a thin “ring of fire” as the Moon sits near apogee and covers about 96% of the Sun at maximum. Although scientifically valuable for studying solar irradiance and atmospheric changes, practical observation is severely limited by harsh weather, extreme remoteness, and restricted access at the few observing sites, meaning the event will be visible to only a small, mostly fixed-number of researchers rather than a broad public audience.
