Penguins and a few lucky scientists in Antarctica will have witnessed a solar eclipse today (7 Feb 08), when the Moon passed between the Earth and Sun, blotting out the view of the Sun from Earth. Today’s eclipse was an annular eclipse, in which the Sun is not completely masked by the Moon. This means the Moon moves across the Sun from the left, creating a black silhouette over the Sun that eventually covers it except for a brilliant ring of sunlight (dangerous to the naked eye).
The eclipse passed over the region of Antarctica pointing towards South America, travelling over the Ellsworth Mountain range, the highest mountains in the Antarctic, before passing out across the Pacific. It's from near the Ellsworth Mountain range, at Patriot Hills Camp that our 'South Pole Adventure' takes place; visitors to the white continent fly out from a naturally-occuring blue ice runway south to the pole.
A partial eclipse appeared over New Zealand today, where the Moon masked roughly three-fifths of the solar disk in late afternoon, local time. A smaller partial eclipse also appeared in southeastern Australia. Discover the World offers the chance to experience a solar eclipse in the High Arctic on 1 August this year; stand on the deck of a powerful icebreaker or a sturdy ice-strengthened former research vessel (the Yamal and Aleksey Maryshev respectively). Our Around Spitsbergen Solar Eclipse and North Pole Solar Eclipse itineraries aim to give passengers the chance to reach the path of totality and witness the solar eclipse on in the beautiful icy landscape of the High Arctic. Contact us now as space is extremely limited!
Love your blog. nice looking. Interesting content.
About Antarctic footwear : If you wear rubber boots, get two pair - one to wear and the other to dry out.
Posted by: Truther | February 14, 2008 at 07:23 PM