Avi Blizovsky
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The peak of the eclipse can be seen with the naked eye, but partial eclipses and the stages before and after the eclipse are strictly forbidden to view without a darkened glass. Tens of thousands of people celebrated in South Africa and South Australia after viewing a total solar eclipse on Wednesday morning (4/12/2002).
The sky in the Southern Hemisphere was bright just in time for the 32-second celestial show when the moon crossed the Earth-Sun meridian. In a remote area in South Australia, 40 spectators awaited the eclipse and cheered during its short duration.
During the eclipse, the sun's corona was beautiful when the moon exactly covered the sun's wheel. Several solar flares were also revealed that stood out from the circle, which under normal conditions are not visible.
This is the first total eclipse to cover Australia since 1976 and with the next eclipse not expected for another few decades.
The eclipse over two hours earlier over the south of the Black Continent. Many local residents gathered and waited for him at dawn on the beaches near the Angolan capital of Luanda. The eclipsed sun's shadow moves at a speed of 5,000 kilometers per hour and therefore the path of the eclipse passed through Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and from there to the Indian Ocean via the coast of Mozambique, which declared a national holiday for the occasion. In several places in Africa, clouds spoiled the view for those waiting.
In several countries in Africa, the eclipse attracted many tourists, who watched special festivals and other events designed as an extra to earn extra dollars from tourists who came to see the cosmic show.
Astronomers and doctors have repeatedly reiterated the danger of directly observing the sun with the naked eye.
For news on CNN
For information on Sky and Telescope, including a moving visualization of the course of the eclipse
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