2006-03-29
| Location: | Billingborough (South Lincolnshire, UK) |
| From: | 2006-03-29 09:45 UT |
| To: | 2006-03-29 11:20 UT |
| Equipment: | Naked Eye Solarscope |
| Temperature: | 12.4°C ... |
| Dew Point: | 3.5°C ... |
| Humidity: | 56% ... |
| Wind Speed: | 1.3mph ... |
| Wind Dir: | West ... |
| Pressure: | 1003.5hPa ... |
| Notes: |
Attempt to observe the partial solar eclipse (which was total in parts of Africa, Asia and Europe). Weather was less than ideal. Despite the day starting totally clear conditions were more or less overcast by the time of first contact. |
Partial Solar Eclipse
| From: | 2006-03-29 09:45 UT |
| To: | 2006-03-29 11:20 UT |
|
At the time of first contact the Sun wasn't visible. I got my first glimpse of the Sun, with the naked eye via a pair of eclipse shades, at 09:51 UT. At this point I couldn't make out any hint of the Moon in front of the Sun. At 09:54 UT I managed to catch a better view of the Sun and, this time, the Moon was visible. The cloud was starting to thin out a little so at this point I got the Solarscope out and set it up ready in case I could get a view through it. Around 10:00 UT I finally got a good view of the Sun via the Solarscope and I managed to take a quick image with the camera in my mobile phone:
Around this time I also noticed that active area 865 (which I first noticed yesterday) had appeared to develop a second spot and that there was another spot visible, further away towards the trailing limb of the Sun, and that this appeared to be part of a different active area (later checking confirmed that this was a separate area with ID 866 ). By 10:10 UT I'd lost any view of the Sun and could see that the cloud was getting thicker all the time. At 10:15 UT I packed up the Solarscope and table but kept them close to hand on the off chance that a hole might appear. It never did. |
