Sunday, July 27, 2008

Total Solar Eclipse


it was March 18, 1988. a regular day for a student like me who's more excited with the upcoming summer vacation than the total solar eclipse that everybody has been talking about. my science teacher told us to bring our handmade sun disk eyeglasses. i forgot mine, so the only way i could look at it is through a provided by someone i can't remember who batyang bakal na may lamang malinis na tubig (oo, batsyang ginagamit sa paglalaba ng ating mga mader dears o nila ate yaya) . i didn't get it right away, so all i did was stare blankly and pretend that i could actually see the spectacular view from my batya with water. but not to worry, i eventually had my own glimpse with TSE.

it was all in the news next day that the total solar eclipse took place at General Santos City for 3 min 22sec by 9:03 a.m. that awed the crowd by its magnificent view. darkness creeps along the city like a late twilight. street lights were switched on and church bells rang with a willingness to contend.

i discovered that it takes 350 years in a particular location before the total solar eclipse takes place again. so it was great to know that i was there to witness in my batya that magnificent view.

since TSE's last visibility in 1999 in Europe that lasted for 2min 22sec, this coming friday, with the sun's magnitude of 1.039, TSE will show its enthusiasts once again in northern Canada (Nunavut), northern part of Russia, western Mongolia, and China.

unless you're still interested, a partial eclipse (moon's penumbra) will be seen in eastern North America and most of Europe and Asia for few minutes not greater than 7min (vs greatest eclipse at northern Russia for 2 min 27sec at 10:21UTC). Remember August 1, 2008, general eclipse begins at 08:04UTC.

note:
solar eclipse is the moon passing between the sun and earth (that happens merely every new moon) that occurs from 2 to 5 times a year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses. Total solar eclipses are nevertheless rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the moon's umbra.

Photo: Images by the J. Rodríguez, from the Mallorca Astronomic Observatory
and Amodiovalerio Verde



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello po!

Di ba magkakaroon daw uli ni solar eclipse sa August 1? Can you teach me how to see it in "batya?" kuryos lang ako! he..he..

Hadassah said...

naku, nung na-witness mo yung TSE, wala pa akong pakialam sa mundo.

nagkaroon ulit ng solar eclipse nung mga elementary ako, 1994 cguro yun. Ansaya nga kasi biglang suspended yung klase.

sa batyang may tubig ko din napanood yung partial nga lang na pang-aagaw eksena ng buwan at ng araw.

Anonymous said...

Nice photos. I don't speak tagalog :D