Although the skies in central Europe were clouded over, observers in Mediterranean countries had an unobstructed view of this unique natural spectacle.

A few flight hours were all it took to reach the totality zone of the eclipse, which extended over North Africa and the Mediterranean. Side, on the Turkish Riviera, and As Sallum in the extreme northwestern corner of Egypt on the Libyan border, were among the most promising observation sites. According to local authorities, about 16,500 people had gathered at As Sallum alone to view the event.

View Photos from the 2006 Solar Eclipse

The images in this article prove that the efforts involved in the trip, particularly to transport the instruments to the observation site, were well worth it. Ideal weather conditions made possible exquisite images of the heavens during the totality phase, the protuberances, and the unusually richly structured solar corona.

The range of optics used extended from conventional cameras with telephoto lenses to combinations consisting of digital cameras with high-quality lens telescopes. In addition to the numerous images that we received from correspondents, to whom we wish to express our thanks, several readers captured their visual impressions in words. Armin Moritz, a teacher at the Johanneum Gymnasium in Herborn, Germany, experienced the eclipse with his students on the beach at Side:

"We had always imagined that the moon shadow was like a wall, but we could never quite make it out. Everything became very dark very quickly during the final seconds of totality, although not as dark as at night. The horizon was illuminated with a red and orange like in the evening shortly after sundown. Because of this, we could only see [the planet] Venus; none of the other stars were visible.

"The solar corona glowed in shining white light for three and a half minutes. Reddish solar protuberances could be seen in various places. The atmosphere on the beach was majestic and simply cannot be described in words. The sun reappeared much too quickly from behind the moon. Its first light beams blinded us, and the corona disappeared. After the event, many broke out in spontaneous applause."

View Photos from the 2006 Solar Eclipse

Compiled by Tilmann Althaus and Martin J. Neumann

3 Comments

1. 1. gs_chandy in reply to gs_chandy 11:06 AM 8/2/08

   "Eclipse", not ellipse, of course. Jesus Christ instructed GW Bush to tell me of my spelling goofup.
   -- GSC

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2. 2. Fabrice LOTY 04:31 PM 8/2/08

   If ancient myhts of the nations were permeated by superstitious beliefs, an ancient, yet reliable record dually existed : the Bible. Concerning celestial wonders, the Bible foretold in the book of Acts of Apostles, chapter 2, verse 20 : ‘The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and illustrious day of Jehovah arrives.’ Recent studies show the sun is not totally immobile. Better, it is turning left and right with an angle less than 30 degrees. In that way, the small dark region in the sun is often exposed, thus allowing complete darkness in the night. As sun thermonuclear energy is running out, this dark region will become sizable, at the appointed time of the reaction. The sun will thus be turned into darkness, and the moon, not receiving enough light from the sun, will rather display infrared light from the nearer planet (Earth), thus being turned into a bloodlike aspect. Similarly, Joshua of old asked for the smaller dark face of the sun to be hidden. Since the moon could step in the miraculous longer day and thus create a disturbing eclipse, Joshua equally asked for the moon to be halted. Another instance of the sun being set to its darker position is when Jesus Christ expired. Darkness covered the region for about one hour.

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3. 3. pam in reply to Fabrice LOTY 08:56 PM 8/11/08

   i was glad to see someone use the knowledge stored in a very old reliable
   book of the earths history ,the good lord's word has never yet been proven wrong in any instance ,archaeological findings when using biblical direction correctly have not been steered wrong ,many learned people over the years have tried to dismiss biblical writings as tom foolery but it has come back and bit them in the ass. one has to stand for something or you'll fall for anything and being such a gullible society we
   take things at face value,if so and so said it then it must be true , personally
   i'd like to think of myself as a human being capable of thinking for myself ,
   research is at our very finger tips today , bibles have been around a lot longer then the internet though.

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