Turkey:
Total Solar Eclipse

29 March 2006

We spent a week in Turkey, centred around the total eclipse of the sun on 29 March.

Stephen's camera and skills aren't really up to the job of capturing this spectacle in anything like the quality the experts can do, but for what they are worth, here they are.


A small crowd on the beach with an unusual concentration of tripods, camera and telescopes is a bit of a give-away as to why these people are here.


Stephen captures a picture of the sun through the eclipse glasses:


About half an hour to go before "second contact" and totality


Projecting the crescent sun through binoculars


About 15 minutes to go.


As the crescent gets smaller, the leaves of this tree project crescents onto the ground


Nearly there - about 5 minutes to go


Watching the sun as the moment grows near. Note the addition of a sweater in the last half hour - it was much colder as the sun weakened dramatically


And here it is - a total solar eclipse


The earlier pictures of the sun were taken through eclipse glasses, but this is it "for real"


Twilight at 2pm, with Venus showing clearly.


Sadly the diamond ring photographs are a little blurred, but you get the idea of the effect as the sun re-emerges from the moon


And a couple of minutes later, the crescent sun begins to grow once more.

More from Turkey with our day in Istanbul...
 

 

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Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright (c) Stephen and Lucy Dawson