Baily's beads


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Bai·ly's beads

 (bā′lēz)
pl.n.
Dots or patches of sunlight visible along the edge of the darkened moon's disk in the seconds before and after totality during a full solar eclipse, caused by sunlight passing through valleys in the moon's uneven topography.
[After Francis Baily (1774-1844), British astronomer who first observed them in 1836.]

Baily's beads

(ˈbeɪlɪz)
pl n
(Astronomy) the brilliant points of sunlight that appear briefly around the moon, just before and after a total eclipse
[C19: named after Francis Baily (died 1844), English astronomer who described them]

Bai′ly's beads′

(ˈbeɪ liz)
n.pl.
spots of sunlight encircling the moon immediately before and after a total solar eclipse.
[1865–70; after Francis Baily (1774–1844), English astronomer]
References in periodicals archive ?
Philipp Salzgeber Dramatic prominences, crimson chromosphere, and Baily's beads all vie for attention during this sequence shot at third contact.
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Glasses on A crescent will begin to grow on the opposite side of the sun where the Baily's Beads shone at the beginning.
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With which natural phenomena are Baily's Beads associated?
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Totally bored, totally disappointed and totally ready to launch a brick at the telly the next time some beardy weirdy started going on about Baily's beads, 1999, the corona or the cosmic spin.
NO FUN IN THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
Totality was short but this meant that the apparent diameter of the Moon would be only slightly larger than that of the Sun, so we should see impressive Baily's Beads, prominences and chromosphere.
The hybrid solar eclipse of 2013 November 3
First there will be the specks of light round the blackness known as Baily's Beads which are formed by the last rays of sunshine cutting through moon valleys.
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After a couple of minutes (that seem like seconds) the end of totality is heralded by Baily's beads, the aptly-named phenomenon where tiny chinks of the solar surface shine through lunar valleys at the edge of the moon.
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