Watch the 2006 total eclipse with ESA (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

28 March 2006

Watch the 2006 total eclipse with ESA

On Wednesday 29 March 2006, the Moon's shadow will sweep over the surface
of Earth during the fourth total solar eclipse of this century.

The path of the Moon's 'umbral' shadow begins in Brazil at 10:35 CEST
[0835 UTC] and crosses the Atlantic reaching Africa about 11:08 CEST [0908
UTC], where it will travel over the northern part of the continent. It
next crosses the Mediterranean Sea to Turkey, and then central Asia where
it ends at sunset in western Mongolia.

For lucky observers in Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, Mongolia, Libya,
Togo, Nigeria and Chad, the Moon will completely obscure the Sun and cause
almost total darkness for a few minutes. This is the total solar eclipse
and such an event only happens every few years.

In addition, many countries in Europe will enjoy the spectacle of a
partial eclipse. This partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader
path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two
thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes between the Sun and the
observer. This happens when the shadow cone of the Moon intersects the
surface of Earth, and is observable by anyone within this shadow zone.

Take care!

You need to take some precautions if you want to enjoy watching the
eclipse. Looking directly at the Sun can be very dangerous!

Looking directly at the photosphere of the Sun (the bright disk of the Sun
itself), even for just a few seconds, can cause permanent damage to the
eye because of the intense visible and invisible radiation that the
photosphere emits. The retina of your eye has no sensitivity to pain, and
the damage may not appear for hours, so there is no warning that injury is
occurring.

SOHO and the eclipse

Any total solar eclipse is an exciting opportunity for unique observations
from the ground. Free from the overwhelming glare from the Sun itself, the
corona that surrounds it is usually the prime target for the observations.

So almost invariably during any eclipse, expeditions go out to whatever
sites seem favourable, to capture what may be a once-in-a-lifetime
observation of phenomena that are otherwise hidden by the brightness of
the Sun.

To make the most of the observations, however, some expeditions are
relying on additional data supplied from the ESA/NASA SOHO and other
spacecraft, either to determine the pointing of their instruments, for
context information to help interpret the data in a broader setting, or
both.

Especially in demand are images from the EIT and LASCO instruments on
SOHO. EIT observes the storms in the Sun's atmosphere by ultraviolet
light, which is blocked by Earth's atmosphere.

LASCO is a visible-light coronagraph that keeps the Sun perpetually
eclipsed by masks in its telescopes. Viewing a huge volume of space, LASCO
can show how features seen close to the Sun, by ground observers during
the eclipse, relate to space weather further out.

More about...

* SOHO overview
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120373_index_0_m.html
* SOHO 10-year special
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMC09VLWFE_index_0_ov.html

Related articles

* What is an eclipse?
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM5N9R1VED_index_0.html
* The science of eclipses
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMYK9R1VED_index_0.html
* The eclipse in history
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMQM9R1VED_index_0.html
* Bad moon rising ...
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGCD0A90E_index_0.html
* Relativity and the 1919 eclipse
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM7I9R1VED_index_0.html

Related links

* ESA/NASA SOHO homepage
http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/
* Watch eclipse with ESA
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=38963
* Watch eclipse with ESA/NASA's SOHO
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/soc/eclipse-2006-03-29/

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[Image 1:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGCXM65LE_index_1.html]
Eclipse of the Sun at solar maximum (Courtesy Wendy Carlos)

[Image 2:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGCXM65LE...html#subhead1]
Do not look directly at the Sun without proper protection!

ESA Sun worshippers at ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, use special
mylar sunglasses to view the Venus transit of the Sun in 2004.

Credits: ESA/R. Van Haarlem

[Image 3:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGCXM65LE...html#subhead2]
A SOHO LASCO C2 image of the solar corona. LASCO (Large Angle
Spectrometric Coronagraph) is able to take images of the solar corona by
blocking the light coming directly from the Sun with an occulter disk,
creating an artificial eclipse within the instrument itself.

The position of the solar disk is indicated in the image by the white
circle. The most prominent feature of the corona are usually the coronal
streamers, those nearly radial bands that can be seen. Occasionally, a
coronal mass ejection can be see being expelled away from the Sun and
crossing the fields of view.

This C2 image shows the inner solar corona up to 8.4 million kilometres
away from the Sun on 20 June 2001.

Credits: ESA/NASA