|
Tues 1.00 am (!) |
Set
off from Priston
to catch flight from |
|
Tues 12.55
pm |
Arrive
|
|
Tues 3.30
pm |
Arrive
at our hotel in
Belek, a purpose-built golf-resort about 12 miles West of the ancient
city of Side This
is the second
eclipse I have seen from |
|
Tues 10.00
pm |
Briefing on the eclipse by the guest astronomers. The reason solar eclipses occur is because the Sun is 400 times the distance from the Earth as the Moon, but 400 times larger. The orbits overlap, and total eclipses occur when the sun and the moon are in precisely the same line of sight from earth. Because with total eclipses the moon exactly covers the disc of the sun, you can see features not normally visible, like the beautiful white corona. This is the sun’s tenuous outer atmosphere (which is an incredible 2,000,000 °C compared with the surface – a mere 6000 °C). You can also see sometimes see solar flares licking out from the surface of the sun. |
|
Wed 8.00 am |
Wake
up to cloudless
skies – looks a promising day.
After
breakfast we board a coach which takes us to our viewing site
– a hotel
very close to Side which is on the central line of the eclipse, giving
us the maximum period of totality.
We are
placed on a terrace facing the sea from which the Moon’s
shadow will
approach. There is
some time before the
action starts so I do a bit of shopping in the streets outside the
hotel. People set
up an impressive array
of telescopes, cameras and other equipment.
Channel
5 arrive and set up for a broadcast due to go out live in the |
|
Wed 12.38
pm |
Partial phase starts. Looking at images that people are projecting through telescopes onto screens, I can see the Sun’s disk is starting to be bitten into by the Moon. Through telescopes with the all-important protective filters I can also see an impressive group of sunspots and even a solar flare on the edge of the sun’s disk. Gradually the quality of the light changes, and the colours become drained of life. The temperature decreases and people reach for their fleeces. One person uses a kitchen colander to project crescent images of the Sun’s disk partially obscured by the Moon onto the ground. This is probably the most cost-effective piece of astronomical equipment on the trip! As totality nears, a few clouds form, and the tension mounts! We look out for the shadow approaching from the sea as the birds fly to their roosts in the trees. Someone spots Venus, becoming visible as a brilliant star-like object as the light from the Sun reduces. |
|
Wed 1.54
pm |
Period of
Totality began It gets a lot, lot darker. The sky is dark overhead but with an eerie twilight all around us. We see the “diamond ring” – the last of the Sun’s rays showing through valleys on the edge of the Moon. Then suddenly the white corona appears as a beautiful ring around the jet-black disk of the moon – much brighter than I had been expecting. There’s lots of cheering and excitement. I am torn between taking photos and just enjoying the spectacle – we have just 3 min 45s of totality. |
|
Wed 1.58 pm |
Period of
Totality ended The “diamond ring” flares into brilliance again – this time on the opposite side of the Moon, and then suddenly it is all over, and we look away from the glare of the Sun as it reappears. Everyone shares their excitement of what they have seen. As we again move through the partial phase, we see through telescopes more and more of the Sun’s disk reappearing from behind the Moon. We have a late lunch and then it is back on the coach to the airport. |
|
Thurs
12.15 am |
Arrive Gatwick, flight delayed because we all have to change seats on the plane from those allocated at check-in to those we had used on the flight out – bedlam! |
|
Thur 3.10
am |
Arrive Priston exhausted and got to bed |