Thousands gather for eclipse
2005-10-04 08:36
Madrid, Spain - Thousands of people gathered across Portugal and Spain on Monday morning to catch a glimpse of something that hasn't happened here for more than 200 years, a rare and spectacular type of solar eclipse that began to dim the Iberian peninsula shortly before 10:00.
In Madrid, families, teenagers with teachers and groups of enthusiasts met at the city's planetarium beneath a cloudless sky and donned protective eyeglasses to watch the eclipse directly or via giant television screen.
Initially, from the Spanish capital, the eclipse could be seen taking a bite off the top of the sun. Slowly the moon slid downward across the sun, eventually settling on it for four minutes just before 09:00.
Through the eyeglasses all that could be seen of the sun was a perfect reddish ring the size of a dime. Through camera lenses, the ring showed white.
"I didn't go to school today. I didn't want to miss the eclipse," said 12-year-old Ruben del Castillo, who was at the planetarium with his mother. "I studied it all this weekend. It's a ring round the sun."
Queuing up
Hundreds formed queues at the planetarium to get the last of the eyeglasses, which were distributed free of charge while a voice over a speaker described what was happening.
Office workers and school children went to the rooftops as the normally blinding light of the Spanish capital dimmed and the air chilled. People shared the special glasses, and whooped with excitement.
Television images showed large groups watching the eclipse all over Spain.
During the event, called an annular eclipse, the moon masks the sun like a black plate, leaving a bright rim.
The moon will be too small to blot out the sun completely, as in a total eclipse, because its elliptical orbit has taken it too far from the Earth.
"Every eclipse is unique," Pere Planesas, astronomer of Spain's National Observatory. "It's an interesting phenomenon which shouldn't be missed by anyone."
The eclipse
The eclipse travels along a narrow band girdling almost half the planet. For the first three-and-a-half-hour stretch it traverses northern Portugal and Spain. Its narrow corridor then takes across mostly deserted parts of Africa, encompassing Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Outside that band, a partial eclipse will be visible through protective eyewear over most of Europe, the Middle East, India and a large chunk of Africa, though some cloud cover is forecast on that continent.
The Iberian peninsula hasn't witnessed an annular eclipse since April 1 1764, and won't see another one until 2028. The last total eclipse seen in Iberia was in 1912.
The eclipse started over the North Atlantic at 08:41GMT. It quickly tracked southeast, crossing the Iberian peninsula. At 08:56GMT, the eclipse blanketed Madrid for 4 minutes, 11 seconds.
It then crosses the Mediterranean into North Africa and the Algerian capital, Algiers.
At 10:31GMT central Sudan experiences the event's longest eclipse, lasting 4 minutes, 31 seconds.
The eclipse passes over the coast of southern Somalia at 11:10GMT and concludes at sunset over the Indian Ocean at 12:20GMT.
- AP