Today August 01, 2008 The total solar eclipses of 9 March 1997 and 26 February 1998 were less then 365 days apart. This was the last time two TSE happened in less then a year’s time. The next occurance is the two total solar eclipses of 4 December 2002 and 23 November 2003. After that we have the duo TSE year of 1 August 2008 and 22 July 2009, and 22July 2009 and 11 July 2010. I observed following similar duo’s: 1990-1991, 1991-1992, 1994-1995, 1997-1998. I will miss the duo 2002-2003 because of the missing Antarctic eclipse. Jo and I observed the Total Solar Eclipse of 01 August 2008 in Levye-Chemy, Novosibirsk (Siberia). We had a few choices for this eclipse. From the air, the Artic, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China. Our choice was Siberia. Including the experience of the Trans Siberian Train. Jo made the itinerary. Flight to St Petersburg, a few days to explore, train to Novosibirsk, explore the city and observe eclipse, and flight to Moscow, a few days to explore and back home.Olga and Nicolay B. from the University of Bath (UK) helped in large. Finding accommodation in Novosibirsk wasn’t easy. Olga originated from the city and arranged us to stay in her friends flat Lyudmila. Olga and Nicolay B. also arranged us to meet with Nicolay’s former student colleague Olga P. in St Petersburg. Olga P. guided us through St Petersburg, as no other person would show us a city in two days. Excellent!!! Thank you all very much indeed. You did your home country proud.The day before the eclipse was clouded out at eclipse time. It did not look good. The morning of eclipse day was excellent. A perfect blue sky. Too good to be true? But it changed soon and in the afternoon it became cloudy. The clouds were heavier and heavier. We decided to stay in the city and observe the eclipse from the square between the locals. We did not bring telescopes, sunspotter, light meter or any other instruments for this eclipse. Just watching as a tourist and enjoy without filming or photographing. That was the idea and we both were looking forward, armed with binoculars each. Watching the locals, the eclipse watchers.With the 6 hours time difference, totality would be at 16h44m local time in the late afternoon. We were at the quay at the river, just out of the centre, where many locals had their telescopes and had organised some gigs and festivities. We met our Belgian friend Rik Blondeel with son. It was approx 3 hours prior to second contact and we decided, despite our poor Russian knowledge, to hire a taxi and drive to the lake Ob Sea. From the morning we were in telephone contact with Derryl Barr and his family, who travelled with Sky & Telescope (including Jay and Judie Anderson whom we met the day before) and were located on the beach at Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk. It looked that the lake (they call it sea) dissolved the heavy clouds. So we negotiated the price, the time and location with a few taxis and we persuaded a good man to bring us to our desired spot. We ended up on the shore of the sea, next to the road between the Ob river and the Ob Sea at Levye-Chemy, near Novosibirsk. Once the man found out that we would go back after third contact, a new negotiation began. Challenging but not complete painful if you know the English skills of the man and our Russian’s … We both know two foreign words max. But Derryl was right, the sky was perfect blue. The clouds stayed in the direction of the city. Jo noticed the start of first contact in the 10x50 binocular. At home we noticed already the absence of sunspots, so no sunspot occultations to observe. We handed out our eclipse glasses to our driver and to the locals who stopped and watched the eclipse with their doubled sunglasses. As the partial phase progressed, we tried to see the fuzzy shadows on the ground, the changing colours and sky darkness and of course the temperature. It was very windy for about the whole day. No change in that. At a certain point the wind seemed to turn and a single big cloud drove into the direction of the sun. It was only a half hour to go. That was scary... But the cloud drove back away from the sun and dissolved. A perfect blue sky further on during the entire eclipse.At about 20 minutes to go, the light intensity felt to drop. No feeling in temperature drop, only sky brightness and very slightly only. Birds (seagulls) still moved along above the water and did not notice any changes. Once only 15 – 10 minutes to go and it went fast. Changes in the sky brightness, colours, the airy feeling changed quickly. I noticed Venus about 7 minutes before totality. Once pointed out, Jo noticed as well. But after the eclipse we realised I saw Venus and Jo saw that time Mercury. We looked for shadow bands from about 10 minutes before second contact until nearly totality. But we did not notice anything like. Then the baily’s beads; the diamond ring was short and very faint and particular beautiful. Venus and Mercury became visible, both at the left side of the eclipsed sun. Jo could remove the solar filters from the binocular. I did not have filters and would use the binocular only for totality. It is Jo who pointed me out to use my binocular or I kept looking with the naked eye only.Totality was so beautiful. Despite the solar minimum the shape of the corona was not symmetric. Large streamers on the left side. One very extended streamer at about 7 o’clock. Jo pointed out a large beautiful prominence at about 2 o’clock. The total eclipsed sun was at 30 degrees altitude and was ideal to watch comfortable. The chromosphere, and then the diamond ring. Again so small and bright and beautiful. The end of totality. What an eclipse, what a beauty. Time to pack and go back with our man to the city centre. Back in Novosibirsk city we watched the end of the partial phase through our eclipse glasses.We did not notice any major temperature drops. The horizon was beautifully coloured, just at 3rd contact there was firework in the distance on the beaches. The seagulls were very aggressive and confused at the end of totality. What a scene. We did not notice Mars, Saturn or Regulus either. The eclipse was not that dark. And we did not notice the shadow cone coming in or going out. Maybe the path was too wide (248 km)? Once more a marvellous eclipse. Sharing our experiences with Derryl, Pam, Nathan and Johnny. We met as well some Dutch friends (Reinder and George) the same evening and later in Moscow same Danish and Bulgarian eclipse chasers. All saw a perfect sky eclipse. So after all, also the city had clear skies. Our flat host Lyudmila observed from Science City and was pleased with the natural spectacle and could remember a total solar eclipse when she was a child.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 06:13:31 +0000
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