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Pics of the Longest Solar Eclipse of the Century
Vinod writes "Yesterday thousands of people around Asia witnessed the longest solar eclipse of the century. Although it was not clearly visible in some parts due to overcast weather, thousands of people gathered to view this spectacular event. Yesterday's solar eclipse lasted for 6 to 7 minutes, making it the longest solar eclipse of the century. Here is a collection of 33 beautiful images of the solar eclipse from around the world."
these pics look much bigger nicer over at boston.com's The Big Picture, where they were posted yesterday and no doubt scooped and scaled for your link.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/the_longest_solar_eclipse_of_t.html
---- You are fully entitled to my opinion.
When they say the longest eclipse of the century, they mean 2001-2100.
Ok we don't need to make this personal (although I've got to admit that seeing the word 'dicklicker' did make me laugh), but yes, you are correct. We can figure out with a great deal of precision the relative position of the Earth, Sun, and Moon many centuries in advance, so this will indeed be the longest solar eclipse that the Earth will see this century.
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One of the big chemical companies is churning out a mylenised film that makes for an effective pair of eclipse glasses. It's a really bad idea to look directly at the sun during an eclipse because the iris expands in response to the low mean light level and provides little to no protection from the high peak light level when the photosphere is visible. Wearing the mylenised glasses doesn't make your iris expand any wider, but it does cut down that peak light level dramatically.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Actually, during totality, looking at the sun (or rather, the moon and the solar corona) completely unfiltered is a Not Bad If You Know What You're Doing Idea. But you're supposed to look away as soon as totality ends, and it's easier to recommend nobody looks at all than to try educating people on the difference between total, partial, and annular eclipses, and the different stages of a total eclipse.
And since the introduction of arc welding, suitable thin films have been used in lenses for welding helmets. It's my understanding that these are frequently peddled in disposable holders for viewing solar eclipses.
How about "6m39s"? Some people forget that we have freaking good models and instruments nowadays. Even if you don't know that, it should be intuitive that we wouldn't be able to determine which one is the longest of the century with only minute-level precision.
No. Actually, the longest of the century: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros136.html
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