Spooky sunrise captured during eclipse in Qatar

Let's face it, the first thing that comes to mind when looking at this photo is "devil's horns" as that is probably what you will notice at first glimpse. In fact, that is exactly what Greek astrophotographer Elias Chasiotis thought when he snapped this photo of an annular eclipse in Qatar. 

“The dark circle near the top of the atmospherically-reddened Sun is the Moon, but so is the dark peak just below it. This is because along the way, the Earth’s atmosphere had an inversion layer of unusually warm air which acted like a gigantic lens and created a second image. The annular phase was blocked by clouds, but the red crescent sunrise was the most awesome sunrise I’ve ever seen!” Chasiotis shared on social media.

This unique example of the annular eclipse and in it's process was captured directly from Chasiotis's lens last month. Only recently, it has gone viral. Not because it is extremely creepy looking in a beautiful way, but because many are speculating this photo was shot in Iran just today. The image had perfect timing luckily, but why are people speculating that this was taken in near Iran just today, when this photo was taken in Qatar last month? 

What is referred to as the "devil's horns eclipse" or "sinister sunrise" was actually taken in December of 2019 by amateur astrophotographer Elias Chasiotis in Qatar and uploaded directly onto his Flickr account yesterday, January 8, 2020.