Solar Eclipse Photos - Philippines July 22

It wasn't a total solar eclipse in the Philippines, but nevertheless, the partial Solar Eclipse today (July 22) still elicited some excited giggles from my female colleagues, some expressions of awe and wonder, and some feelings of minisculity.

I half-ran back to my office after a meeting, glancing at the sun, but just hurting my eyes in the process. I stopped and squinted to see if there was anything happening up there, only to be betrayed by my eyes, tearing up from the glare.

When I got to my office, I found a couple of my colleagues had taken out some x-rays of pipelines (I work in a refinery) and were using those to watch the ongoing eclipse. When I got my turn to look, I was hugely disappointed! It was already 830AM by then and all I could see was a small chip on the upper-left portion of the circle that was the sun, so small it was virtually unnoticeable! Bah!

But I was sure that it was going to be amazing. So sure in fact that I did not, could not, stop watching, waiting for the awesomeness to happen.

A few minutes passed. Then I realized... the eclipse was not ending, it was only beginning. :D woot! And my spirits picked up.



I still had to work, but for that hour before my 10AM meeting, I went out every 10 minutes or so to see the eclipse in progress. A few colleagues passed by after learning that we had some materials for viewing the spectacle. They left with exclamations: "beautiful!" "amazing!" and "awesome!" reflecting what I had been shouting in my heart as well. The moon's shadow covered about one fourth of the sun's face at it's "peak". Not much, but still remarkable.

Yesterday, I was reading the Time magazine's article on the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the first moon landing, and today I was floored in amazement, seeing the shadow of the moon run past one side of the sun. Wow, the moon's really there even though we can't see it. It really is! Haha.

I felt small, watching the solar eclipse. Tiny. And awestruck. And now I wait for the next one, the countdown to the next Total Solar Eclipse begins today!


*Thanks to Boks for the photos!


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Syzygy Watch: July 22, 2009 Total Solar Eclipse

Bring your solar filters and cameras, a Total Solar Eclipse, one of the rarest celestial events on Earth is happening on Wednesday, July 22, 2009! It will be visible between around 8AM and 9AM on that day (at GMT+8hrs, just compute for your own country's time! ;p) in the following countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. The moon's shadow will then blot out our sun in Japan's Ryukyu Islands before hovering over the Pacific Ocean and eventually disappearing. The solar eclipse will be partially visible for the most of Eastern Asia (including the Philippines! woot! woot!), Indonesia and the Pacific Islands.

Packaged Tours are available in places in the world where the eclipse will be completely visible, like in India, where they will witness the "100% solar eclipse with diamond ring." It is only the third total solar eclipse to be visible in India in the past 15 years and one has to wait for another 78 Years, to witness such a spectacle again. The next total solar eclipse will occur in 2087.

In the Philippines, I remember 2 solar eclipses in my lifetime. The first one was the total solar eclipse on March 18, 1988, when I was a young (and innocent, hehe) 6 year old kid (I just turned 6 the week before that!). I remember my mom brought out a basin of water and told us to look at the reflection on the water and not directly at the sun. Some of my neighbors brought discarded film negatives and looked through those.

I had excitedly anticipated the partial solar eclipse of June 11, 2002, but the sky was uncooperative. The clouds hid the sun completely so I didn't even partially see the partial solar eclipse.

I did not know about the most recent partial solar eclipse, visible from the Philippines. Apparently there was one last January 29, 2009, but that it was at sunset.

Now the next total solar eclipse will be on April 20, 2042. Mark your calendars folks. lol. I'll be 60 by then, but I promise you, I will watch that solar syzygy with my children and my grandchildren and I will tell them all about my first total solar eclipse when I was 6 years old. :D

I'll tell them all about syzygies too, and how I was, well, born on a syzygy. :D



Image from here.
Solar eclipses in the Philippines


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I got my weekend back

I was on leave from shutdown duty yesterday! And from the looks of things, my weekends will be back for good... well, until the next shutdown. I needed the break badly, and the 2 hour trip to Manila was so worth it. My gf told me I was even talking in my sleep about work!

I had planned to sleep until late morning, but I woke up at 7am and couldn't go back to sleep anymore. I got a haircut. I took my car to the vulcanizing shop where they took a screw out of my left rear tire. I watched "21" on DVD (it was okay, except for the weird ending). Had too much to eat (veggies!). Had 3 cups of coffee. And spent quality time with my gf and my family...
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On Tuesday, March 10, it will be the 27th anniversary of the most amazing planetary alignment in recorded history.

"On March 10 their apparent positions, as seen from the Sun, will be closer together than at any time in the last 179 years..."

Then on the midnight of the 11th, it will be my 27th birthday. :p

I'm off to Baguio on the 12th to the 14th with Liz! Who wants to go? I have 1 more spare room, good for 2 people. Let me know ASAP!