A total solar eclipse, one of the earth's most unique phenomena
is when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, its
shadow hitting the Earth and blocking out the Sun. If you're
lucky enough to be in the path taken by the centre of that
shadow, the Moon will align itself exactly with the sun,
blocking it entirely and you'll see a total eclipse.
Outside of the path of totality, although a staggering 95% of
the Sun is still obscured, the effect of the eclipse is not
nearly so vivid - just a quiet, still, evening dusk-like effect.
These were the conditions most of us experienced during our
'once in a lifetime' eclipse over the UK mainland on 11 August
1999, with the next not now forecast until 2090. Huge
cosmic coincidence is at work during a total eclipse; the Moon
is 400 times smaller than the Sun and the Sun is 400 times
further from the Earth so, quite extraordinarily, from our
viewpoint here on Earth the size of these two celestial objects
appears to be exactly the same. Whilst this
coincidence is in the hands of greater forces than us, getting
ourselves into the right place at the right time is not. These
days it is easily within our power to move swiftly around the
planet. There are some qualifications here. Total
eclipses roll by every 18 months or so but nature throws out a
much higher chance of incidence over inhospitable terrain, the
most probable venues being vast tracts of ocean or barren icy
wastes. Also whilst the Moon casts a huge shadow over the face
of the Earth sometimes as wide as 10,000 miles, the central
umbral cone is only a fraction of this, sometimes as narrow as
100 miles or so. But here's the good news because the
next total solar eclipse is nearly upon us, due on 29 March
2006. And, as the Moon's shadow sweeps across Africa and the
Mediterranean at 1,500 to 2,000 miles per hour, the umbral cone
will cross an area favoured by many of us in our annual quest
for a quick week away in guaranteed sunshine. The
Turkish Mediterranean coast already caters to thousands of
holiday sun seekers: with plenty of hotels, and a strong chance
of cloudless skies, places such as Dalaman are just around a 4
hour flight away from the UK, with airlines such as XL offering
ch
eap flights. And once you're in Turkey you can
take to the sea and celebrate the event with a gulet flotilla
holiday or if you want to mark the more cosmic significance of
the day there's a trance festival where eclipsaholics can chill
together: have a look at soulclipse.com for more
details. So are you ready for another bite at your
once in a lifetime opportunity? Oh...and don't forget your
sun glasses!
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