Penrhyn/Tongareva was the first place on earth to see the latest solar eclipse which was visible across a huge stretch of the USA on 8 April, 2024. A solar eclipse occurs when when the Moon passes in front of the sun and blocks it. It wasn't quite a total eclipse over the island but 98.58% of the sun was blocked out, albeit the weather spoiled the view. And it still meant sunrise was more like sunset. It was third time in 59 years that the Cook Islands has been in the path of one of nature's most awe-inspiring spectacles.
Penrhyn residents gathered on the beach to get a glimpse of the rare phenomenon but cloud and some light showers meant the view was obscured. And it was a similar story on Rarotonga and Aitiutaki where islanders and visitors were due to see a partial eclipse but woke up to a rainy morning spoiling the view. Photo: Cook Islands News The globe shows the path of the eclipse
Timings (for Omoka village) are derived from Xavier Jubier's eclipses mapping page
The island is just 9 degrees below the equator. And at 11.2 kms (7 miles) wide and 24.1 kms (15 miles) long, it's also the largest atoll in the Cook Islands and one of the largest in the Pacific. It's 1,365 kms/848 mls North by North East of the capital island of Rarotonga and home to just 233 people who live in two settlements. Its stunning lagoon covers 233 sq. kms (90 square miles) or to put it another way...more than the land area of all 15 of the Cook Islands put together. But the land area around the lagoon totals a mere 9.8 sq.kms/3.8 sq. mls
MORE ABOUT PENRHYNThis was the third time in 59 years that islands in the Cooks group have been in the path of a solar eclipse, and on the two previous occassions they were total eclipses
The Cook Islands Administration (the government of the time) issued stamps to commemorate the eclipse. And a post office was set up on Manuae so the scientists could, in those pre-internet days, tell the world about what they'd seen and speed their correspondence on its way with an appropriate reminder. Manaue is the only deserted island ever to have had its own stamps!
These stunning photographs were taken on Mangaia. The first two are by Constantinos Emmanouilidis who was among the scientists who travelled to the island to study the event. The first picture is of totality showing blazing prominences emerging from the eclipsed sun. This is called "Baily's Beads". The second photo was taken by Neil Barabas and shows the sun just after totality. All are reproduced with permission and copyright remains that of the photographers
MORE ABOUT MANGAIA MORE ABOUT THE 2010 ECLIPSE
English missionary, the Rev. William Wyatt Gill witnessed a near total eclipse across the Cook Islands on May 6 1883 and refers to "heathen days" centuries before when he says the event would have "occasioned great consternation". In his 1885 book "Jottings from the Pacific" he writes about the ancient belief that Tangaroa, the Cook Islands divine god of the sea and fertility was responsible for eclipses...
"Liberal offerings of food would be carried to the maraes, while the priests chanted prayers to Tangaroa in order to get back the sun. It was supposed that the hungry Tangaroa had swallowed the lunimnary, but that on account of the large presents of food and many prayers, he vomited the bright morsel up again"