Armenia

By Nessuna

“Make sure you don’t miss the solar eclipse today in the afternoon,” my dad voice on the phone said, waking me up in the morning. “Tell your mom too, so she doesn’t get scared.” Half-awake, my mind immediately pictured a crowd running scared, and chaos in the streets of Yerevan creating panic and disorder while the sun slowly vanished in the gloomy sky. Seriously, I love my dad’s sense of humor, and when I got to work, I searched for info on the web and found the following.

On Wednesday, 2006 March 29, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon’s umbral shadow begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.

According to the Director of the Byurakan Observatory of the National Academy of Science in Armenia, Hayk Harutyunyan, the solar eclipse could be observed only partially in Armenia. Weather permitting, it was possible to see 91.8 % of the sun covered and is believed to be the first solar eclipse of the 21st century. If you missed it you might have to wait years for your next chance to see it.

This is a fantastic chance to see a great eclipse, and should be made the most of by Europeans in particular, as it will be their last easy chance to see a total eclipse of the Sun in many years. The next total eclipse in Eurasia is 1 August 2008, visible in central Russia, Mongolia and China, for more adventurous travelers; then 22 July 2009, visible in India and China; then 20 March 2015, visible from the Faroes, if the sky is clear. The next total eclipse of the Sun in mainland Europe is in 2026.

Honestly, nothing scary happened. Supposedly the eclipse started at 15:02 local time, but it wasn’t until 16:00 that I noticed a change in the illumination (the highest phase was at 16:20). It was about when everybody in the office glued themselves to the windows with floppy disks in their hands to pay a tribute to the celestial event.

It was only afterwards that I found the following information on Wikipedia.

There is an urban myth that it is safe to view a solar eclipse through the film of a floppy removed from its case. Despite some anecdotal support, this is in fact dangerous and can lead to retina damage and even blindness.

There was a small discussion about the eclipse on one of the Armenian forums, followed by photos posted online.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Blogging, Caucasus, Armenia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.