The three diamonds
A story about total solar eclipse on November 3rd, 2013. When the eclipse started (on left side of the image), there were two part of diamond ring, which was unusual (for me first time). It is caused by angle diameter of the Moon in this case of hybrid eclipse. The magnitude of coverage from Pakwero, Uganda, was just 1,00259, which means the Sun photosphere could easily shine above two different locations of lunar limb in same time. Next hybrid solar eclipse will occur in April 2023 over western Australia and Indonesia. Used Canon 6D, Rubinar 1000/10, ISO 250, 5×1/500 s, Vixen GPD-2 mount.
The lunar shadow in Pakwero, Uganda
We were very lucky in Uganda. Thanks to amazing kindness of our guide Crammy Wanyama from Uganda Safaris nad Tours we could find a place to observe the eclipse without any interruption, so the only bad thing, what could happen, was covering the totality by clouds. Fortunately – even if we really had one big cloud – the sky in the location of the Sun cleared up just 5 minutes before short totality. As bonus we could see very significant circular lunar shadow projected into the cirrus clouds. As you can see on following image. The width of path of totality in our place was just 17 kilometres. So only less than 9 kilometres from us was still sunshine with no total eclipse of the Sun.
Also you can check out video footage made by Alex Gustafsson (Denmark) and Lukas Gornisiewicz (Canada). Our group (with Jan Sladecek from Czech Republic) stood in marked place with flags of Czech republic and Uganda. It was amazing to watch not only the eclipse, but the local people around. Some of them looked out of the Sun during the eclipse and didn’t see the coverage and corona. They were afraid. But still … unbelieveable experience. In the video, you can also see almost perfect circular lunar shadow projected on hight cirrus clouds.
Video: Hybrid total solar eclipse viewed from Uganda
(edited by Alex Gustafsson)
