Posted by Davin Flateau on 28 Feb 2006 at 4:14 pm.
Filed under General, Astronomy.
On March 29, the moon’s shadow will fall silently onto the earth’s surface. The dark circle will cruise at over 1500 miles per hour across the western shores of Brazil, over the Atlantic Ocean, and darken a narrow swath across Africa, central Asia, before finally disappearing into darkness when the sun sets on the horizon of western Mongolia. Most folks in that hemisphere will see the moon cover part of the sun - a partial solar eclipse. But anyone lucky enough to be right in the path of the tiny circle itself will stand in awe as the moon completely hides our star. They will be witness to one of the grand sights of nature - a total solar eclipse.
If you don’t plan to be on one of those continents, or you’ve lent your transatlantic yacht out for that day, you can still catch the solar eclipse live on the web!
The Exporatorium will broadcast the eclipse live from Turkey on satellite and the web, starting at 5 a.m. Eastern Time (4 a.m. Central), with totality occurring at 5:55 a.m (4:55 a.m. Central). The event will feature “play-by-play” commentary by “Mr. Eclipse” himself Fred Espenak and physicist Kennedy Reed.
The webcast is great, but folks who’ve seen a total solar eclipse up close and personal say there is simply no substitute for being there. There is no photograph, no recording or description that can capture the otherworldly beauty of the eclipse-induced night. As the sky dims to a twilight, bright stars and planets actually become visible in the daytime; frightened birds may suddenly start chirping away, while the air grows slightly chilly. The corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere usually hidden by the glare of the sun itself, makes a dramatic appearance, revealing long strands of white hot glowing gas streaming from the black disk. Enormous loop-shaped solar storms thousands of miles long called prominences are unveiled, poking out from the sun’s edge, reminding us that the sun is a huge, very active nuclear furnace with mind-boggling output.
Is there a better way to spend your next vacation?
Stars Over Kansas » Total Eclipse on 29 Mar 2006 at 8:21 am: 1
[…] Oops - last night, I forgot to post about the Total Sclipse that was over Europe and Asia. But I did have a post up about awhile ago, so I hope everyone caught that! […]
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