Unless your only source of information about Novosibirsk is this present blog, you should have known that a total solar eclipse was planned in Novosibirsk on August 1st 2008. A good occasion to go for another boat tour on the Ob and watch the eclipse from a place with no risk of anything hiding our sight.
I thought I had been in a total eclipse before (1999, France). Either I was not at the right location, or maybe eclipses in the western world are not that impressive, but in the end, my expectations were not that high. I was expecting something like that:
What you are looking at is a picture taken proactively prior to the real eclipse. It is my right-hand side finger, the tip of which happens to coincide with the diameter of the sun. I thought this was similar to what I was going to experience, so you'll understand that I joined the boat expedition more for the shahsliks and the beer than the astronomical experience.
Well, what we saw was much more impressive (if you don't believe me, ask the other 10,000 tourists flocking to Novosibirsk for the occasion):
That's what we saw... but the eclipse is in fact much more than the Moon going in front of the Sun: until the sun is 100% covered, the light is pretty much normal. But then, at once, it is like someone switches off the light and you can see the stars. And everything goes dark:
On the left, this is minutes before the eclipse (no photoshop). On the right, this is during the 2 minutes of the full eclipse (no photoshop).
In the end, this turned out to be a magnificent experience, almost spiritual... And I also had beer and shashlik on the boat so I really had a great day.
2 comments:
That's pretty cool. I think I've only seen one of the ones where Mercury or Venus goes across the sun, so you see a dot traverse it but the light never changes. Plus, I didn't get beer or my shash licked. All I got was some stupid welding glasses.
Я Хочу pics, big hello to your parents)) MF
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