I’m in Trinidad in the Caribbean .I’m just viewing it ,after my GranMother called to remind me that Pregnant women should not even hold a knife or sissors , or else the baby will born with a Clef lip …. LOL , my ol Granny means well !!
Its Spectular !!!

We were very close to the border with Lybia, nearby a small town called El-Sallum and, together with 70000 people that camped in the middle of the desert, we were able to watch a magnificent eclipse. The sky was totally clear and we were so close to the central line that we had almost 4 minutes of totality! The solar corona was fabulous and we could see Venus first and Mercury afterwards. Other people reported seeing Mars and Jupiter. The temperature dropped 5ºC as we approached the maximum of the eclipse and we experience a bit of the eclipse wind. I put some pictures on this website I run with some friends:

http://www.portaldoastronomo.org/noticia.php?id=635

together with an article (it is in portuguese, I´m afraid) I wrote about the event .

In 1999, at a time of another total solar eclipse, I was in England and I couldn´t see the sun as it was completly cloudy. Of course, England, what else to expect?….
This time I did thousands of miles but it was worth as the conditions were perfect. Watching an event like this is something that I recommend to everyone, at least once in a lifetime.

It’s true isn’t it?

I saw one here in Australia a few years ago (actually I don’t remember the date), a few of us were permitted to enter the Woomera Restricted Area and we saw the eclipse in the outback. I laugh at those who went to Ceduna (in South Australia), they don’t know what they missed.

Check out:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10375329

Yes, Ed, but when the sun is close to the horizon, its light gets absorbed and scattered through a lot more atmosphere than when it is high in the sky!

It looks like 2017 will be a good year for the U.S. 2017 eclipse.

Sometimes, I wonder that people are a bit over cautious because we have all squinted at the Sun..that is ….everyone who drives and you can’t help it if you are going east at sunrise or west at sunset and it is not cloudy.

Of course, you don’t want to do it all the time either.

Lot’s of good & bad astronomy today as I caught the eclipse but the local Philadelphia Weather Girl said the next one isn’t til 2024…wrong it’s 2017!

Some time today I’ll watch the eclipse footage.

Granted the actual totality period has the Sun obscured by the Moon for a relatively short period, damage to the eyesight is possible for the un-initiated, the un-wise and the plain foolhardy, as the Sun appears at the other edge, usually with the brilliant Diamond Ring effect caused by the sunlight shining through the mountains on the limb of the Moon. As for even mentioning Binoculars in tne same sentance as Eclipse ( of the Sun ), it is a totally irresponsible comment.

Having viewed a Total some 25years ago, i.e. with the projected image from a Celestron C90 onto white paper, and ensuring my children were aware of the dangers, I was saddened to learn on return to work that my supervisor did have damage to his eyesight by actually looking at the sun during a Solar eclipse when he was a boy. I had thought he was just slightly cross-eyed, but it was the need to see anything directly ahead as he had a permanent ‘hole’ in his vision, and it was in both eyes.

So please, do not stare directly at the Sun at any time, at least not without proper filters etc. Sorry Phil, but ANY damage to eyesight that could have been avoided is too much for any reason. But then the eclipse is over now, so is this caution too late?

Ivan

I think it’s wonderful that coverage of the eclipse has been made so readily available to the public, in real time and after the fact.

Wayne, great photos!

A fruedian [Freudian] slip or accidental pun?
Clearly, Prof. Plait is still thinking about the bunny from two posts ago.

I saw that last night and was going to say the exact thing, but I was too busy pouting.

That page you posted is funny:

“moocher astronomer (n) – refers to an observer who comes out to an observing session without a telescope or binoculars of his or her own.”

I have binoculars, but because there are so many amateur astronomers at our observatory, there are a number of telescopes to look through, so I say I’m a “scope slut,” (to be crass for a moment). “Scope groupie” doesn’t sound right.

The eclipse was cool…watched it live online at the Exploratorium site. Wish I could see a total eclipse myself.

Just for a change, we had very little cloud cover and bright sunshine (even when it was partially eclipsed).

I used a primitive pinhole camera to view the eclipse, so it was only a tiny wee image. But it was still an eclipsed sun!

Doesn’t beat seeing an annular eclipse (and I’ve never seen a total eclipse).

Darn it, why is that word so difficult to type…?!

There you go.

March 28th, 2006 at 10:06 pm

“you’d have to work pretty hard to go totally blond”

A fruedian slip or accidental pun?

Clearly, Prof. Plait is still thinking about the bunny from two posts ago.