Eclipse!

A few weeks ago we heard that there was going to be an eclipse over Thailand, so we were excited! We planned ahead & managed to come across a funny little store selling hardware & some welding supplies. After some tricky sign language & miscellaneous english words, we were handed 2 lenses for welding hoods. We were all smiles & could see that the three Thai ladies behind the counter were highly amused by our wanting to buy them!

I checked the NASA website & learned that the Annular Eclipse* of Jan 26, 2009, was just going to skim Thailand at 10 am, so the other morning, we got ready. It was a cool morning, so it was nice to sit in the sun at 9:30 after breakfast & wait for it to begin. 10:00 am came & went with no eclipse, so I went back to the NASA site & read the fine print. Ah! convert to UT - Universal time to get the proper viewing schedule - 5 pm as it turns out. 

OK, at least we didn't miss it.

At 4:45 we dropped everything & rushed to the roof of the hotel, welder's glass in hand. I took this picture of the view to the west to see how the light would change during the peak.

The glass was great, our eyes were protected. 

(That's the Thai flag behind Sada.)

The eclipse was, well, not very dramatic! It covered about one eighth of the sun & made no difference whatsoever in the quality of daylight. It was cool to watch it tho - a good time was had by all. 

I, of course took some pictures with my trusty little camera - thru the welder's glass & here's my best pic. See the weird little ghosty sun in the northwest corner? Evidently, that's a mirror reflection of the sun showing the little eclipse bite. No idea why the real sun doesn't show it. Maybe someone can tell me.

For a much better look of what we saw, check online or try this link to someone else's blog:

http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/index.php?blog=5&title=solar-eclipse-in-thailand&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

*An Annular Eclipse is like a Total Eclipse, except the moon is closer to the earth & altho the moon covers the sun, a fiery ring of the sun still shows at the edge.

AND, on July 22 of this year, there's going to be a Total Eclipse here & in most of Asia. Our welder's glass will stay behind for our hotel friends to use to check it out. We, however will be back in Alaska by then, enjoying another natural phenomenon - the midnight sun!