News
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Partial solar eclipse witnessed in Pakistan
LAHORE: Pakistan witnessed a partial solar eclipse on Friday, which peaked between 4:18pm to 4:26pm, ARY One World reported. The eclipse was first seen in the northwest of the country, with Peshawar experiencing totality at 4:18pm. Lahore witnessed the peak of the eclipse at 4:26pm and Quetta at 4:39pm, and the eclipse was visible for over 2 hours. Pakistan fell outside of the narrow band of 230 kilometres in which a total eclipse was witnessed – China and Russia got the best views of the event. Darkness fell over the last outpost of the Great Wall of China, where the rare total solar eclipse ended its journey, delighting skywatchers one week before the Olympic Games open in Beijing. In Russia, thousands had flocked from around the world to Novosibirsk, mixing awe with excitement as day turned into night. All gazed in wonder as an eerie silence descended on the Siberian city and gusts of unusually strong wind tore through the crowd of skywatchers. Birds stopped chirping and the temperature suddenly dropped, a Reuters TV reporter there said. Several thousand people turned out at a park in Norway’s capital, Oslo, where the eclipse was near 50 percent, to peer up at the sun through dark glasses in cardboard frames and see pictures of the total eclipse beamed onto a large screen from a plane tracking the phenomenon in the Arctic. daily times monitor/reuters
Courtesy Daily Times