Don't Miss it-Watch it LIVE.

As most of us would aware,tomorrow will be the day for solar eclipse as I mentioned in my earlier post that is Once In A Life~Interesting.

A total solar eclipse will darken some of Earth's skies on Friday, but geography, weather, the economy and even the Olympics are combining to make it a hard and expensive for people to see it..Nah...that's not the problem for us for in Malaysia because even if the weather permits,we won't be able to see it because this solar eclipse can be only be seen in mostly remote places: the northeastern edge of Canada, the tip of Greenland, parts of Russia, China and Mongolia, including the famed Gobi desert. Too bad for Malaysia and other unlucky countries....sob sob sob...

Anyway,with Internet facility in finger tips,we,who can't be there, can watch it live on the Internet..How good...Some of the areas where the eclipse will last the longest _ including parts of the Arctic _ have a 75 percent chance of bad weather that will make it tough to see. This eclipse at its peak will last for 2 minutes and 27 seconds.

NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, who has been chasing eclipses since 1970,will be in China just to watch this rare and unusual phenomena....huhu.....how lucky those people who be in the eclipse coverage countries...

  

Museums, such as the Exploratorium in San Francisco, will have eclipse events. NASA, the Exploratorium and others will broadcast the eclipse live on the Internet. It reaches its peak at 7:09 a.m. EDT.

WATCH THE ECLIPSE LIVE FROM CHINA 10:30 - 11:30 UT 8/1/2008  here .

Once In A Life~Interesting.

We are lucky but we are not....On Friday, 2008 August 01, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in Canada and extends across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China...This is why we are not lucky...But a partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra shadow, which includes northeastern North America, most of Europe and Asia.

For those select few, day will turn to night, the stars will come out if weather permitting- it's not a miracle because star is on sky during the day too but is not visible due to sun light.The moon's blackout of The sun will provide a dazzling visual spectacles that sky watchers will never forget..wow...how lucky...That will a beautiful view....Should not miss it.

Many people go a lifetime never witnessing a total solar eclipse. And in fact we happen to live in a rare moment in the 4.5-billion-year history of our planet when total solar eclipses are just barely possible due to some remarkable solar system alignments.

Alrite,lets c how it works..back to standard 6 science i guess..Solar eclipses occur when the moon moves in front of the sun. This can happen only at the time of a new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun, therefore making the latter no longer visible in our daytime sky. You must be wondering how come moon can cover the sun when the sun is bigger then moon..It is because although the sun is about 400 times larger than the moon, the moon in turn is about 400 times closer to the Earth than is the sun so,the result is they both appear virtually the same size in our sky....virtually reminds me of my physics during STPM..something with maya,real thingy...

Back to the story,why is this phenomena called rare when the phenomena of eclipses are not really rare?It is because an eclipse of the moon (when Earth blocks sunlight from lighting up the moon) is visible from half the planet, solar eclipses are visible only from a narrow path.In this case, the swath of Earth in total darkness, called the path of totality, will be only about 157 miles (252 km) wide.

Any given spot on the Earth's surface will play host to a total solar eclipse on an average of once every 375 years.

Surrounding the umbra is the penumbra (Latin, paene-umbra, "almost shadow"). It is much wider, touching the surface of Earth on a swath about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) wide. Anyone inside that shadow can see a partial eclipse, weather permitting. From Earth, it will appear as if a bite has been taken out of the sun, but the sky does not typically grow noticeably darker unless 70 percent or more of the sun is blocked out.

Since this is a phenomena that is very interesting,you might be so kepoh-kepoh go and see it with naked eyes..DON'T DO THAT!! unless you want to go buta...There are special eyewear designed for viewing the sun and can be found at some science and astronomy stores and online.Eh,thats for sure will be damn expensive when most of the people here going pokai,how could they will buy this stuffs...Well,there is an alternative way that is to purchase a piece of number 14 welder's glass from a welding supply store or use the method I used to use during my school time..Get a mirror and cover d side of the mirror leaving the about 1/2" square and hold the mirror at right angle and project the Sun onto a shaded wall...or make our own version of so-called telescope or binocular..whatever u wana call it...1st,you need two piece of white paper..Dun ask how big,just grab a white paper,poke a small hole on one of the paper.Not big hole,not 2 fit ur head into it,poke with a pencil o pen..And then let the sunlight go through that hole and fall onto the second piece of paper, held a foot or two below the first, in its shadow.

Still cant get it,view this.

And yeah,sunglasses are not suitable as it can permanently damage your eyes by even looking for a fraction of a second at any eclipses.Same goes to the telescope and binocular unless they are designed for eclipses.