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August 1st, 2008 Total Solar Eclipse

CAUTION! OBSERVING A SUN ECLIPSE IS DANGEROUS AND MAY CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE EYE DAMAGE, UP TO BLINDNESS, ANNULAR AND PARTIAL ECLIPSES INCLUDED! Observing a Sun eclipse necessitates DEDICATED SAFE TECHNIQUES!

More Still About the August 1st, 2008 Total Solar Eclipse! Home Page
Just click on the thumbnail to get access to views of how the August 1st, 2008 total solar eclipse is to be seen. First from some places in China. Then from varied places where the eclipse will be partial only, either side of the path of centrality that is
As far as China is concerned, the eclipse, as seen under the path of the centrality, will be a fine and remarkable show, unfolding by the end of the afternoon, with the sky first darkened by the eclipse, before getting into the twilight with the sunset! Like usual the darkening of the sky, will allow to the surrounding sky! Just spot Mercury, Venus, the constellations of Hydra, the Hydra, Leo, the Lion, or Lynx, the Lynx! The eclipse itself, for some regions, will remarkably, further, be seen occurring just in Cancer, the Crab, close to the famed M44, an open cluster, also known under the name of Praesepe, or the Beehive! A powerful show for those who will be lucky enough to be treated with!
As far as the locations where the eclipse will be seen like partial only, on the other hand -either side of the zone of totality- the nearer Siberia or China, the greater the Sun will be indented by the Moon, as the farther, the opposite, the less the Sun indented
. it's likely that, like for each major astronomical event, some websites will cover live the observations of the eclipse, and easy to find from a search engine on the Internet!

The second solar eclipse for 2008 is a total solar eclipse, a rare event that is. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, along a certain path, may be seen entirely occulted by the Moon's disk, leading to the much famed show of the solar corona streaming away from the occulted disk of the Sun! This total eclipse is seeable mainly in Siberia and China, and too in the northern, Arctic parts of Canada. The eclipse is seen like a partial eclipse (an interesting show too, where the Sun is just seen indented by the Moon) for such regions and countries like Eastern Siberia, northeastern China, Koreas, and a whole band of countries running from western Europe (Spain and southern Italy excluded) to Burma. The western or southwestern, or northern those regions, the better however, with Sun more indented. for more about the solar eclipses, theoretically, see our tutorial "Sun Eclipses"

The eclipse's main data are the following (data as of the beginning of November 2007). The Moon's apparent diameter will be of 32' 28.2", compared to the Sun's 31' 30.5". for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial "Observing a Sun Eclipse ":
- greatest eclipse: 10:21:08.1 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 1.0394
- local circumstances at greatest eclipse (lat: 65° 38.8'N, long: 072° 16.4'E, elev of Sun: 33.5°; duration at greatest: 2m 27.2s)
- U1 to U4 (moments of first-last external-internal tangency of the umbra with Earth's limb; practically these are the moments of the eclipse for the places where the eclipse is total); in UT: U1 at 09:21:07.3, U2 at 09:24:10.3, U3 at 11:18:29.9, U4 at 11:21:28.0
- P1 to P4 (moments of first-last external-internal tangency of the penumbra with Earth's limb; practically these are the moments of the eclipse for the places where the eclipse is partial), in UT: P1 at 08.04:06.8, P4 at 12:38:27.7

see a map for the February 2nd, 2008 annular solar eclipse (54 ko). map courtesy Fred Espenak - NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, site NASA Eclipse Home Page

. for more about this eclipse and for more about solar and lunar eclipses generally, see Fred Espenak's NASA Eclipse Home Page, NASA/GSFC

a view of the August 1st total solar eclipse seen as partial from countries like in France. Cartes du Ciel, Patrick Chevalley

Observation Reports: the August 1st, 2008 total solar eclipse was of the usual, and classical brand, unfolding over Siberia and China mainly. Some places however were having somewhat cloudy skies, as such a total eclipse still is considered a bad omen in China, where the Sun is seen like eaten by a dragon, or a dog. In some other places, the eclipse was seen like a partial eclipse, with the Sun indented by the Moon only. The picture besides is showing how the partial eclipse might have looked like, as seen from France