MvdV> On Thursday July 27 2017 21:53, you wrote to All:
WD>> I'm going to camp-out just outside the eastern entrance of Yellowstone WD>> Nat'l Park near Pahaska Tepee around August 21st to view the North WD>> American 2017 full solar eclipse.
MvdV> Great!
MvdV> A solar eclipse is awfull. I was lucky to have one within driving MvdV> distance in my lifetime. When I was 13, I stumbled on a book in the MvdV> school library that had a list of predictions of solar eclipses until MvdV> 2000. I saw that a solar eclipse was predicted for 11 August 1999, to MvdV> be visible in Dutch Limburg. Albeit not a completelt total eclipse, but MvdV> a ring eclipse. I decided I was going to see that, even if I needed to MvdV> walk to Limburg.
MvdV> 40 years later, the calculations had been updated. The centre of the MvdV> eclipse was not in most southern part of The Netherlands, but a couple MvdV> of hundred km more to the south. In Normandy. More to the south is also MvdV> closer to the moon. And so the eclipse was not ring shaped, but total MvdV> with an eclipse magnitude of 1.029.
MvdV> I settled down on a camping in Pommereval near Neufchâtel-en-Bray, less MvdV> than a km from the central line. I was there about for or five days MvdV> before the event. It looked like the fun would be spoiled by the MvdV> clouds, but magically the clouds opend up half an hour before t=0. It MvdV> was great, something I will never forget!
Yes, I was in Normandy at the time. We had to drive up to Haute Normandie to actually get the total eclipse but it was worth it as it would be the only one I would see in my lifetime.
Some people had said that cattle would go mad if daylight was reduced during the day but we were near a field of cattle and they took not the slightest notice.
One of the things that I like about the French is that, when parting, they say things like, "bonne journée" or, if you're working and they've stopped you to talk, they will say, "bon continuation". That morning people were wishing each other, "bon eclipse"!
MvdV> And may there be no clouds...
We, too, were lucky.
David (writing from Normandy)
-- Formerly ICHTHUS (Reading) UK (1987-2007 R.I.P.) (2:292/854.110)
