annular solar eclipses
An annular solar eclipse is similar to total eclipses in that the moon appears to pass centrally across the sun, but it’s too small to cover the disk of the sun completely. Because the moon circles the Earth in an elliptical orbit its distance from Earth can vary from 221,457 miles to 252,712 miles. But the dark shadow cone of the moon’s umbra can extend out for no longer than 235,700 miles; that’s less than the moon’s average distance from Earth.
So if the moon is at some greater distance, the tip of the umbra does not reach Earth. During such an eclipse, the antumbra, a theoretical continuation of the umbra, reaches the ground, and anyone situated within it can look up past either side of the umbra and see an annulus, or “ring of fire” around the Moon.