The extraordinary cosmic event of a total eclipse of the sun will present itself to an exclusive audience on Dec. 4, 2021. Stargazers hoping to witness the moon’s umbra shadow obliterate the solar sphere from view will have to sojourn to the Antarctic—where the eclipse will first appear in the Southern Ocean. It will then traverse a narrow band westward across the continent before ending in the Southern Ocean once again. A partial eclipse of the sun, meanwhile, will be visible to a much wider gallery on that day, reaching across the extreme Southern Hemisphere. Starting some 300 miles southeast of the Falkland Islands—off the southernmost tip of South America—the total eclipse will first appear in the Southern Ocean. It will proceed westward into the Weddell Sea where the moment of greatest eclipse will occur off the coast of Antarctica. The peak period will last just 1 minute and 54 …