Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999

On August 11, 1999, a total eclipse of the sun, with an eclipse magnitude of 1.029, occurred.

The path of the moon's shadow began in the Atlantic Ocean and, before noon, was traversing Cornwall, Devon, northern France, Luxembourg, southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, and northern Serbia. Its maximum was at 11:03 UTC at coord|45.1|N|24.3|E| in Romania (next to a town called Ocnele Mari near Râmnicu Vâlcea), and it continued across Bulgaria, the Black Sea, Turkey, Iran, southern Pakistan and India and ended in the Bay of Bengal.

It was the first total eclipse visible from Europe since July 22, 1990, and the first visible in the United Kingdom since June 29, 1927.

Observations

There is little doubt that this was the most-viewed total solar eclipse in human history, although some areas in the path of totality offered impaired visibility due to adverse weather conditions. Some of the organised eclipse-watching parties along the path of totality set up video projectors on which people could watch the shadow as it raced towards them [http://bioinf.mpi-sb.mpg.de/conferences/ismb99/WWW/Welcome.html] . There was substantial coverage of the progress of the eclipse shadow across European TV stations. The moon's shadow was also observed from the Russian Mir space station; during the eclipse, video from Mir was broadcast live on television.

* The BBC concentrated its coverage efforts on the first landfall of the shadow across the western end of Cornwall (St Ives -> Lizard), which was packed with an extraordinary number of British visitors. The seasoned veteran eclipse-watcher, Patrick Moore, was brought in to head a live programme, but was unfortunate to be clouded out.
* Some of the best viewing conditions were to be had in mid-Channel, where ferries were halted in calm conditions to obtain an excellent view.
* A gathering of several thousand people at the airport in Soissons, France, which was on the path of totality, were denied all but a few fleeting glimpses of the eclipse through the overcast sky. Ironically, the clouds cleared completely just a few minutes after the eclipse was over.
* Further inland, viewing conditions were also perfect at Vouziers, a country town which was gridlocked by cars from Belgian visitors. Photos from Vouziers were used on the subsequent BBC Sky at Night programme.
* The San Francisco Exploratorium featured a live webcast from a crowded town square in Amasya, Turkey.

Notable times and coordinates

[
thumb|190px|NASA-produced map of the eclipse with coordinates; [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/SE1999Aug11T.gifclick here] for detail.]

Type of the eclipse

References

* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990830.html View of eclipse from the Mir space station]
* Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson. " [http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE1999/TSE1999.html Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11] ". NASA, November 2004.
* [http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse/990811/rp.html The Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11]
* [http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse1999/ Eclipse at hermit.org]
* [http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/live99.html Exploratorium Webcast: Solar Eclipse August 11, 1999]

External links

* [http://www.krysstal.com/ec1999.html KryssTal - Eclipse in Cornwall (UK)] - totality not seen but scene photogrpahed.
* [http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/ViewEntry.asp?EntryId=1270566 Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 Romania, shown in Romanian Maximum Card]
* [http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/ViewEntry.asp?EntryId=1270571 Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 Romania, shown in Romanian Maximum Card]

Solar eclipse succession box
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previous=February 16, 1999
natureprevious=annular
next=February 5, 2000
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previoussamenature=February 26, 1998
nextsamenature=June 21, 2001