Millions watch Russian eclipse
Published 01 August, 2008, 19:14
Millions of people in Russia’s Siberian city of Novosibirsk have witnessed a total eclipse of the sun. The eclipse, which began at 10:21 GMT, plunged the city into complete darkness for 2 minutes and 27 seconds.
Tourists flocked to Novosibirsk in Siberia to watch the astronomical event, which is not due to occur in Russia again until 2030.
Heavy cloud cover, which was predicted by some forecasts, luckily didn't materialise to spoil the astral show.
The eclipse was also visible in Greenland, northern Canada, China and Western Mongolia.
Conditions in Siberia at this time of the year are favourable for seeing an eclipse. And, as luck would have it, it occurred in the cities of Novosibirsk and Barnaul, considered to be the main transportation hubs of Siberia, making the event completely accessible.
The next total solar eclipses will occur in Northern America in 2017, in Europe in 2026, while Russia will have to wait until 2030 for a repeat of Friday's spectacle.
In a total solar eclipse the umbra of the Moon's shadow touches the surface of the Earth. Because of the relative sizes of the Moon and Sun and their relative distances from Earth, the path of totality is always very narrow (up to 270 kilometres across).
Novosibirsk experienced this ‘totality’, or complete darkness, for two minutes and twenty-seven seconds before the sun again began to reappear.
The moon’s shadow took about an hour to travel across Russia. It then barely skimmed the territory of Kazakhstan and northern Mongolia and disappeared into China just twenty minutes after leaving Russia.
discuss it
