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ICEE '99 Conference,
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The millenium’s last total eclipse of the Sun will begin roughly 300 km south of Nova Scotia, where the Moon’s umbral shadow will touch down at 9:31 UT (see the picture - 256 kB).
In Prague, the last total solar eclipse was visible on May 12, 1706. This will not change as the path of totality in 1999 misses narrowly the Czech Republic. In Czech cities, the biggest partial eclipse of 0.98 magnitude will occur in Ceske Budejovice at 10:43 UT , i. e. at 12:43 local time. Observers in Ostrava will be less lucky. The "cosmic event" will begin at 11:27 local time. The instant of greatest eclipse will occur at 12:49 when 93.5 percent of the Sun’s disk will be blocked (see the picture - 5 kB). The eclipse will end at 14:10. Because the Sun will be high above the horizon at that time, the eclipse will be easily observable if the skies are clear. For visual observation, one needs a very dark filter. A fully exposed and then developed cine-film inserted into a slide, or a foil from a floppy disk can serve for this purpose. This is the minimum of eye protection because a direct look at the Sun impairs vision.
The lenght of the path of totality is roughly 1,400 km, and the Moon’s shadow will sweep through it in 3 hours and 7 minutes. The path of totality covers only 0.2 percent of the Earth’s surface.
Hopefully, there will be clear skies over Ostrava on August 11, 1999.
Text by Tomas Graf, HaP VŠB - Technical University of Ostrava
Pictures by F. Espenak, NASA/GSFC
Design © 1998 Radim Farana, Department of Control Systems and Instrumentation
Eclipse of the Sun
