I’m sure by now you MUST have heard that it came and went. The weather forecast was dismal at best but it turned out pretty well for us here in Kansai! We were lucky!
The clouds came in with a vengeance right after it was over! What a shame it would have been to miss out on such a rare phenomenon. Actually, solar eclipses are not rare. The unusual part is not having to go anywhere to see it! A near total eclipse passed right over us on Monday morning and people in Wakayama, Tokyo and Chiba had nearly 100% coverage, here in central Kansai we were good for at least 94%. Very nice. Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kochi were probably rained out. Too bad.
A lot of warning was rightfully given regarding safe viewing practices. It is in fact very, very dangerous to look straight at The Sun and irreversbible eye damage can easily result. But as an amateur astronomer, I am well set up with a variety of equipment and experience and offer this cute little photo as a token memoir of the event. The image is digitally magnified so it doesn’t appear quite as sharp or as high-contrast as I would have liked. It really started out on a very tiny CCD chip! But oh well, the next full eclipse is only about 19 years from now!
Check out the Astronomy and Natural Science Course at the Smith’s School in Kotoen!
Martin Werner Zander, Smith’s Partner
マーティン・ワーナー・ザンダー
Owner, Smith’s School Franchise in Kotoen
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