Skywatchers, Get Ready for the 'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse

The world recently experienced a fascinating lunar event -- the largest supermoon of 2012. Following up on that, there will soon be an interesting solar occurrence. Skywatchers in the western United States and eastern Asia should gear up to catch the solar eclipse this Sunday.

(Related: Here are some of the best snapshots of Saturday's 'supermoon'...including pics from Blaze readers)

Space.com reports that the May 20 event will block out nearly all of the sun in some areas, creating a "ring of fire" in the sky. In areas most affected by the annular eclipse, 94 percent of the sun will be blocked. The western U.S. and Canada will mostly be exposed to a partial eclipse and the East Coast is missing out completely because the sun will have already set.

Watch this video to learn more about the annular eclipse:

If you are going to view the eclipse, it is recommended you not look directly at the sun. Space.com reports that your everyday sun glasses are not strong enough to protect your eyes from the rays, but welders glasses and safe solar telescopes are. It also suggests this method:

The safest and simplest technique is perhaps to watch the eclipse indirectly with the solar projection method. Use your telescope, or one side of your binoculars, to project a magnified image of the sun’s disk onto a shaded white piece of cardboard.

The image on the cardboard will be safe to view and photograph. Be sure to cover the telescope's finder scope or the unused half of the binoculars, however, and don't let anybody look through them.

The Blaze received a great response from readers when it asked for your images of the supermoon in earlier this month. If you happen to take any photographs -- safely -- of the solar eclipse, send them our way.