Solar Eclipse - 1 August 2008

Very good pictures of the total solar eclipse can be viewed at:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/080801-solar-eclipse-rao.html

Two pictures below:

As the sun's "diamond ring" appears, the total phase of the Aug. 1, 2008 solar eclipse is about to commence. Note the Moon's dark shadow on the lower right beginning to encroach on the cloud deck below.

A total solar eclipse is seen in Jiuquan, in China's western Gansu province Friday Aug. 1, 2008.

Below- Extract from Space.com. http://www.space.com/spacewatch/080801-solar-eclipse-rao.html ABOARD A JET ABOVE THE ARCTIC OCEAN – A total of 147 observers from around the world had a perfect view of this morning's total eclipse of the sun, thanks to an 2,189-mile airlift to a grandstand seat 36,000-feet above the Arctic Ocean at a point between the uninhabited northern coast of Greenland and the Norwegian island group of Svalbard.The contingent of eclipse watchers were onboard an LTU Airbus A330-200 long-range jet, racing the moon's shadow like paparazzi scrambling alongside a celebrity's passing automobile. The aircraft's 555-mile-per-hour speed (mach 0.85) provided 175-seconds of total eclipse for the passengers to take pictures and record other data. In contrast, persons on a stationary ship on the Arctic sea below would have seen – provided no clouds blocked the view – the moon's 139-mile wide shadow speed past them at 2,740 mph, providing a noticeably shorter total eclipse lasting 132 seconds.Unique observing location
No planetarium in the world could have produced so impressive a natural spectacle as the sun and moon did in the cobalt-blue heavens; although the sight lasted less than 3 minutes, the fantastically beautiful skyscape more than repaid the participants, many of whom were already up before dawn to ready themselves for a round-trip flight of 12 hours. 

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