Partial solar eclipse wows coastal residents
ERWIN LEUSCHNER
SWAKOPMUND
A unique and breath-taking play of light right before sunset – this is how coastal residents described a partial solar eclipse that could be seen late on Monday afternoon.
Thick fog hung over the coastal towns for most of the day on Monday, but this disappeared to allow curious onlookers a glimpse of the partial eclipse, which started at around 19:00.
At Walvis Bay, the moon covered about 78% of the sun, while in Windhoek, it covered 58%.
Another celestial highlight will take place at around sunset on 21 December when planets Saturn and Jupiter will come very close to each other. According to the Astronomy at Namibia Scientific Society Facebook page, this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence is called the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and the planets will be so close that they'll appear as a single, bright star.
“The last time the two planets were this close was on 16 July 1623 when Galileo Galilei, the father of observational astronomy, was still alive,” the Perth Observatory wrote on Facebook.
SWAKOPMUND
A unique and breath-taking play of light right before sunset – this is how coastal residents described a partial solar eclipse that could be seen late on Monday afternoon.
Thick fog hung over the coastal towns for most of the day on Monday, but this disappeared to allow curious onlookers a glimpse of the partial eclipse, which started at around 19:00.
At Walvis Bay, the moon covered about 78% of the sun, while in Windhoek, it covered 58%.
Another celestial highlight will take place at around sunset on 21 December when planets Saturn and Jupiter will come very close to each other. According to the Astronomy at Namibia Scientific Society Facebook page, this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence is called the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and the planets will be so close that they'll appear as a single, bright star.
“The last time the two planets were this close was on 16 July 1623 when Galileo Galilei, the father of observational astronomy, was still alive,” the Perth Observatory wrote on Facebook.
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article