Total Solar Eclipse 1 August 2008
by Kevin Brown : last updated: August 2, 2008Welcome back!
Warning – DO NOT ever observe the Sun through binoculars or ordinary telescopes – you will certainly damage your sight. Instead, project an image indirectly onto a piece of card.
There will be a total eclipse of the Sun tomorrow (as I write this), on the 1st August 2008.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon gets between the Sun and the Earth, casting a shadow on the surface of the Earth.
This is of course, a dramatic natural event. At locations on Earth where the Sun is totally obscured, day will briefly be turned into night.
Only certain Earth locations will experience the total eclipse. For tomorrow, these are located in a fairly narrow band, beginning in Canada, crossing the Arctic regions, traversing North Russia and then crossing China.
The band of totality, which is the track of the Moon’s shadow across the surface of the Earth, is only about 200-400 km wide, and as mentioned, is in generally northern parts.
Consequently, many dedicated eclipse-watchers will have travelled a long way to observe the total eclipse.
In the UK, the eclipse will be partial.
From London, only slightly more than one tenth of the Sun will be covered. From more northerly parts of UK, more will be covered, reaching about a third from the northern isles.
The eclipse begins at 9.32 BST and ends at 11.03 BST, with the maximum at 10.16 BST.
I shall be at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park in London, with some others from the Society for Popular Astronomy to observe the partial eclipse. Please join us if you can.
Many people have travelled to China to observe the total eclipse. Even if you are not one of them, you can still watch it live from China, by the wonder of the internet, thanks to this organisation – Exploratorium eclipse live webcast
Here is a background article about eclipses and occultations on this site.
