Solar eclipse escapes most Arusha residents
By Staff Reporter
The solar eclipse which occurred in the afternoon of Monday the 3rd of October,
escaped most Arusha residents, but the few who observed it, said it didn't make
much difference either. The sunlight, though a little bit subdued still shone
strong enough.
"Though it was 2.00pm the time looked like it was either 10.00 a.m in the
morning or 5.00 p.m in the evening," Said one Michael Raphael, a resident of
Arusha who knew of the pending eclipse before it happened. According to the
observer, efforts to try and capture the event by gazing through tinted eye
glasses weren't successful either.
Other people who got interviewed however admitted not only not to have know
about the eclipse but also didn't even notice it in the first place. The last
such an eclipse was observed here was in May 2003. Before that a similar one
occurred in mid-2001. The real effective one was seen here in 1999. The eclipses
apparently have this tendency of recurring in duration of two years.
According to scientific reports, the path of the recent annular eclipse began in
the North Atlantic at 08:41 UT. Rushing southeast, the antumbra quickly reached
the northern coast of Spain and Portugal (08:51 UT). Bisecting the Iberian
Peninsula, the antumbra engulfs Madrid (08:56 UT) which lies near the central
line. The annular phase lasted for 04minutes 11seconds from this capital city
with 90% of the Sun's surface being obscured by the Moon.
Isla de Ibiza straddles the northern path limit as the shadow crossed the
western Mediterranean. Upon reaching the African continent, Algiers lied within
the shadow's trajectory (09:05 UT) and experienced an annularity of 03m 51s.
Following a southeastern course, the antumbra passed through southern Tunisia
and central Libya where the Moon's umbral shadow is to return six months later
during the total eclipse of March 29. 2006.
After briefly skirting northern Chad, the antumbra sweeps across central Sudan
where greatest eclipse occured at 10:31:42 UT. The annular duration was 4minutes
31seconds, and the Sun got placed 71° above the desolate desert landscape. The
central track ran along the southern Sudanese-Ethiopian border before entering
northern Kenya where it engulfed much of Lake Rudolf (11:10 UT). Southernmost
Somalia was the antumbra's final landfall (11:30 UT) before heading east across
the Indian Ocean where the path ended at local sunset (12:22 UT).
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