Total Solar Eclipse 2009

Hi Seamus,

On Friday morning August 1st around 10am 26% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon.
The Sun will be 40 degrees up in the East. Nicely placed for viewing.

I'm sure you know all about the dangers off looking at the sun without the propper equipment

Then on Saturday evening August 16th around 10pm over 80% of the Moon will be eclipsed by the Earth's shadow .
The sky will just be dark (Sun 11 degrees below the horizon) and the Full Moon will be 12 degrees up in the southeast. So conditions for viewing will be reasonable.

Best of look with it lets hope its clear.

Hi,

With the wonderful horizons on a ship (like in 1998 in the Caribbean, it was
incredible to see the shadow come across the sea) I was thinking of getting a very wide-angle lens for an all sky picture from the Pacific next July.

Maybe someone has experience of using wide angle lens and can suggest one,

John

Well, I just got a glimpse as the sun came around from behind the Ulster Bank offices on the Quays in Dublin at 9:30 this morning.

About 4% covered at the NNW corner of the sun.

Waiting patiently for the clouds to clear again now....:dry:

Im in Dublin right now at work in the quays, best I can do is look out the window at it! Good job 99% of the buildings here are made of glass

...yup. Got a another break in the clouds at 10:10, about the time of maximum phase here (26.8%).

It seems like it's more the NW edge now that's covered.
I'm looking though a Thousand Oaks glass solar filter with the naked eye & had a clear image, but the phase didn't look anything like ~26%. More like ~10%, which I know is way off...:huh:

Well, that's it for another partial eclipse from Dublin. It's 11 bells here, the end of the eclipse & the cloud never lifted again. Pity. Even partials are fun, especially when it's all ya got.

Wonder how our deflectors to the East got on?