DUBAI 22 August 2017: The rare total solar eclipse of the century starting from Oregon in the West of USA to South Carolina is the east, may have been fantastic for US viewers and guests – but it was probably the best for the thousands who had gathered in Missouri.
The skies were dark with ominous clouds raining down and drenching the thousands who had gathered in the field to watch the ‘totality’. One couple from Australia told CNN that they has spent 18 months planning for the trip.
Was it worth it?
Yes.
At the perfect moment, the clouds ripped apart to reveal the ‘totality’ of the eclipse. And, as their luck would have it, the dark clouds helped create the semblance of night.
“I think I saw Jupiter,” said a enthused sungazer as cheers broke out in Missouri.
Even US President Trump and First Lady Ivanka Trump, saw the eclipse from a balcony of the White House in Washington DC.
In this video captured at 1,500 frames per second with a high-speed camera, the International Space Station, with a crew of six onboard, is seen in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second during a partial solar eclipse, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 near Banner, Wyoming. Onboard as part of Expedition 52 are: NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson, Jack Fischer, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy; and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Paolo Nespoli. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of South America, Africa, and Europe. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Video by Angel Chan
In Toronto with its partial eclipse, my daughter captured the partial eclipse on the shadow as she wasn’t supposed to look at the Sun.
Millions of people saw the rare event on live streams, while Nasa sent up two planes with photographic equipment to record the event.
The International Space Station astronauts are said to have seen the celestial event three times as they chased the eclipse.
Rare Solar Eclipse
Rare – that is – for the United States. It is the first time since January 11, 1880 that a total solar eclipse occured exclusively over continental US.
It was visible in other countries – but will be partial. No other country will see the total solar eclipse.
UAE residents saw the eclipse if they were in – or visiting – North America on Monday – or on live stream on the Internet.
Coast-to-coast total solar eclipse fever gripped North America
LOS ANGELES: The moon completely blocked out the sun’s rays on Monday in a rare solar eclipse across North America that created and eerie darkness over much of the United States.
The total eclipse, centred in a 100-kilometre-wide band stretching across 14 states, was first visible in the US in Madras, Oregon, starting at 10:19 am (1719 GMT) and lasting for about two minutes, NASA said in a statement quoted by dpa.
The temperature dropped by a couple degrees and the corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, was visible as a glowing ring, said Wam.
The moon is passing between the sun and the Earth in a rare alignment that last occurred in the United States in 1979. It will cross the continental United States over a span of almost two hours ending in South Carolina at 4:06 pm (2006 GMT).
The event, which has excited everyone from professional astronomers at NASA to schoolchildren across the country, is the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in the US since 1918.
While Monday’s eclipse was to darken the day at least partially across the US, and to a lesser extent in Canada and Mexico, much of the excitement was centred on the so-called path of totality, where the moon blocked out the sun completely.
Millions of people have gathered in cities and towns near the path in order to experience the total eclipse, which has been described as peaceful, spiritual, exhilarating and shocking.
Astronomers have encouraged people who really want to experience it to get to the path of totality. Traffic problems were reported days before the eclipse in some areas near the path.
Although Washington does not lie in the path, a White House official said US President Donald Trump will watch the total eclipse from the south-facing balcony of the White House with First Lady Melania.
The US labour department expects the eclipse to cost about 700 million dollars due to diminished productivity, because people will spend time talking about the solar eclipse, reading about it or leaving their desks and venturing outside to see it, according to numbers released by human resources firm Challenger Gray.
Experiencing a total solar eclipse happens about once in 375 years in any given location, according to Nasa.
People have been warned not to look directly at the eclipse even if they are in an area where the sun will be only partially obscured. Nasa and other US agencies have issued special-purpose solar filter glasses and supplied instructions on how to make a safe hand-held solar viewer.
By Eudore R. Chand