Best Place to View the August 2008 Solar Eclipse
China Excels with Sun’s Cosmological Event & International Olympics
Aug 1, 2008
Large parts of the Earth will succumb to midday darkness with Friday’s Solar Eclipse in the Northern Hemisphere; however, many places will vie for the title the best place to view the eclipse. This eclipse, classified as a magnitude 1.039 with a maximum width of 150 miles (240 kilometers), will cover (to some extent) most of the Eastern half* of the Northern Hemisphere. Beginning in the territory of Nunavut Canada at 0923 UTC and ending in Xian China at 1120 UTC, the Moon’s umbra travels along a path approximately 10,200 km (6,375 miles) long.
Totality of the August 1, 2008 Solar Eclipse
Northern Canada, Greenland, the Arctic, Russia, Mongolia, and China will all experience a degree of totality. During the “new moon” the moon is closest to the sun and if the sun’s shadow happens to fall on the earth’s surface a portion of the earth will be covered or eclipsed by the moon. According to NASA, during the August 1st eclipse, the moon’s umbra will cover 0.4% of the Earth.
NASA continues in its article Eclipses of 2008 by astrophysicist Fred Espenak, “The instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 10:21:07 UT (latitude 65° 39'N, longitude 72° 18'E) when the axis of the Moon’s shadow passes closest to the centre of Earth."
Partial Solar Eclipse
Northeastern parts of North America, and much of Europe and Asia will experience only a partial eclipse, but still the excitement is rapidly growing. Euro-news has run 3 TV specials devoted to the coming eclipse while BBC and RAI TV continue to interview scientists from the British Astronomical Association.
In India's media and social network Aadhunik it is reported that, "The partial eclipse will be seen in the north-eastern region… [and people will] see between 40-70 per cent of the diameter of the sun.”
The Middle East's Arab News reported, coming one month before the Holy Month of Ramadan, “Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the grand mufti, has said that people in western and southern Saudi Arabia do not need to perform the special prayers today as the eclipse will not be visible in these parts.” Appearing over Arar Saudi Arabia at 1:26 to Riyadh at 1:55 (local time,) prayers will be held accordingly.
The Best Place for Solar Eclipse Viewing
- Novosibirsk - Russia's third most populous city, "...lies only 18km from the central line [and is] the midpoint of Novosibirsk's 2min 18s total eclipse,…” according to Espenak. The Siberian city has planned for the event for quite some time. By experiencing the longest period of totality of any major location and having special “Eclipse Flights” from Frankfurt Germany, Novosibirsk is ready. She has built large facilities like “Eclipse City Day Camp,” and specialty areas in local hotels just to view the event. As a result the city is a serious contender for best place honors.
- China - The Chinese Olympic Solar Eclipse is in, "...the year of the Rat, the month of the Monkey, the day of the Dragon” and China will fall victim to "...superstition and some degree of civil strife" according to astrologer Raymond Lo as reported by AFP on July 29th 2008. Yet marketer Eclipse-glasses of England says, “Why not make an extended once in a lifetime holiday…to experience this natural phenomenon and the world’s greatest sporting event all in one breath taking holiday [to] China,” making China a contender.
- 37,000 Feet over the North Pole - Dr. Glenn Schneider of the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona along with German airlines Air Berlin and LTU plan “Flightseeing” trips over the North Pole to view the totality. Staying within the Umbra above most of the Earth’s shielding atmosphere, the view of TSE2008 will be unequalled. Launched from Düsseldorf Germany, the flights must be considered one of the best places to view August's total solar eclipse.
* "Eastern half" of the planet is based upon the prime meridian (UTC=0) in Greenwich England and extending eastward and westward from there – UTC+ or UTC-.
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