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29 March 2006: The Sun turns black over Egypt! (part three)

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Another typical effect of totality is the temperature drop. It depends on quite a few factors: initial temperature, atmospheric condition (wind, humidity, etc.), time of the day, and so on. I've heard reports of temperature drops of more than 10 °C in the Libyan desert, most likely thanks to the dry climate and strong heating of the sand from solar radiation.

Our location can be considered to have an overall desertic climate, somewhat mitigated by the sea whose waves break onto the shores only a few kilometers away. And moreover, the presence of fog until relatively late in the morning and the steady northwest wind (which, if I'm not mistaken, weakened a little around the totality phase but never subsided), probably played a key role in preventing steep temperature increases.

The above graph shows a temperature drop of about 5 °C, partially offset by the increasing trend due to normal daytime thermal excursion. My graph actually has a flaw: due to the atmospheric thermal inertia, the temperature "trough" should normally be detected about 10-15 minutes after totality, not during it as is the case with my chart. This difference from the normal (and correct) behavior (see also Lorenzo Comolli's webpage) is most likely due to incorrect placing of the thermal sensor (i.e. not completely in the shadow), which was therefore heated by incoming light rays immediately after third contact.

Here is my setup:

  • the main scope was a Skywatcher ED80 f/7.5 semiapo refractor, riding on a Vixen GP mount fitted with an Astromeccanica DA-1 clock drive.
  • the imaging sensor was a Canon EOS 300D DSLR
  • for the eclipse sequence, I used an evergreen Nikon F3 SLR camera with a 50-mm f/1.8 lens @ f/8 and a 100-ISO Kodak film. The camera was mounted on a carboon fiber Gitzo tripod with Kirk Enterprises ball head (many thanks to Fabrizio Giudici for lending me his setup).

An eclipse chaser with its tools

I manage to see and image the eclipse until the very last teeny weeny bit of Moon leaves the Sun's disk blank once again. Just the time to pack the gear back up, to have a very quick meal, and we are sailing off to Alexandria, where we finally get by the late evening.

On our way to Alexandria, we find the time to greet our setting Sun. After all, the show's leading star () fully deserves this tribute!

Acknowledgements

When back home from this wonderful journey (which, by the way, continued until sunday, 2nd of april, as a very nice sightseeing tour), I owe many thanks to:

  • Mother Nature, for treating us with this awesome show;
  • All my travelling companions, namely: Francesca; Valentino, Patrizia; Dario, Letizia, Lorenzo, Armando e Stefano. I will dearly remember our time together!
  • The Personal Tour travel agency of Varese, Italy, for organizing this successful tour; also many thanks to our guides (Tino, Adel and Ashraf) for their kindness and professionalism.

Links

This solar eclipse was observed by thousands of people from throughout the globe who flocked mainly to Libya, southern Turkey and El Salloum, our location and probably the most crowded observing site. Below is a list (however incomplete) of other fellow eclipse chasers who decided to share their work and impressions. Some of them were either travelling companions of mine, or were in El Sallum but we didn't manage to meet; some others saw the eclipse from somewhere else. But no matter what their location, the "eclipse fever" is always the same!

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