By plane from the major European capitals or from the snowy peaks of an archipelago lost in the Arctic, much of the northern hemisphere attends Friday the magical spectacle of a solar eclipse, provided the weather allows.
From early in the morning, scientists have begun to observe from the Atlantic Ocean how the moon partially hid the sun.
“It’s very nice. It is one of the most wonderful astronomical shows that can be seen, “he told AFP astrophysicist Alfred Rosenberg, one of the first to have enjoyed the event from the observatory in the Canary Islands.
The eclipse will be visible after in Europe, northwest Africa and Asia, and the Middle East, before ending his tour near the North Pole.
As usual, the authorities have multiplied warnings, urging people to wear glasses special protection to prevent eye damage.
The phenomenon could be partly spoiled by the weather, because the sky announcing clouds in many of the regions where you can be.
To avoid bad weather, there will be boarding planes scientists and astronomy lovers to enable them to go see the “black sun” above the clouds. Upon payment of several hundred euros per head, 50 Danes are mounted on board a Boeing 737 chartered for the occasion
Though even there they will face some drawbacks. “From the ground, you can hear birds behave differently and feel the temperature drops, “he told AFP one of the passengers, Valentin Mikkelsen. “And I could not see everything, so small that they are the windows,” says the professor of 63 years.
For the tenth time since the beginning of XXI century, the solar eclipse will be total, but can only see the full phenomenon from remote areas of the planet.
Thousands of eclipse chasers, sometimes arrived from the antipodes, traveled to the Faroe Islands, an autonomous Danish territory above the UK, and Svalbard (Norway) , 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole, in the middle of the Arctic, to see the night in broad daylight for about two and a half minutes.
In Svalbard, just released four months of polar night hotels They hung the poster full for this day several years ago
In these remote lands everything is extreme. -18C temperatures and risk of polar bears. The attack on Thursday at a Czech tourist to get the animal in his tent
recalled the reality of this threat, which has left five fatalities since 1971. A total solar eclipse is a matter of distance and alignment. Is necessary that the moon is interleaved with the sun on a perfect axis at a distance close enough for our plans so that the apparent diameter exceeds the satellite of the sun, completely covering it.
By chance, eclipse coincides with the spring equinox, when the sun passes the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere, as well as the “Supermoon” (full moon at perigee, the point where the satellite is closest to Earth).
The eclipse will mains under tension for a few minutes removing almost all of the production of electricity from photovoltaic source and forcing makers to take unprecedented measures.
The alignment between Earth the moon and the sun will be followed by tides Saturday on the shores of the Atlantic, the English Channel and the North Sea.
(AFP) .
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