Egypt and Libya, March 19 - April 2, 2006 / 20060329n_1231pm_SM_PostEclipseEuphoria
Ruth Milner, rmilner plus web at bookofmarvels dot net
12:31pm local time: Totality has just ended
with another stunning diamond ring and some nice prominences. Matthew is
jumping up and down ("Sun! Sun! We have you back!"). Sarah is standing there
just sort of vibrating with excitement.
She really absorbed the idea of how special an experience this was. She
put it in an interesting way: "We traveled for two weeks to watch something
for four minutes!" But what an amazing four minutes it was. Notice the
bluish quality of the light again. And of course the ever-present person
taking a photo of the kids. Moments after this picture was taken, Sarah
noticed shadow bands on the ground. Somehow from the sketches of them I
had gotten the idea that they were stationary, but instead they rippled
very quickly. It worked best to stare at one spot and just let them pass
across your vision. Dale noticed them running across the white roofs of
the large tents, too. They only lasted about 30 seconds and then it
was over. It appears to be a pattern of interference fringes (like the
school physics experiment where you shine light through a double slit),
caused by variations in the density of the atmosphere. Fascinating.
