Phenomenon

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun, as seen from Earth. This can happen only at New Moon (Moon between the Sun and Earth) and if the Sun and the Moon are perfectly aligned as seen from Earth. In a total eclipse (A), the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In annular (B) and partial eclipses (C), only part of the Sun appears obscured. The first total solar eclipse for a year, this one is a so-called hybrid solar eclipse. It starts as annular, where the outer disk of the Sun remains visible, and it evolves to a total eclipse. By the time the event is visible in Africa (the eclipse moves from West to East), the disk of the Sun will be fully covered by the Moon and a total eclipse will be seen. At locations outside the totality track, such as southern Europe, a partial eclipse will be observed. So if you are living in southern Europe and want to view the partial eclipse, make sure to wear proper eye protection.

Expedition

GLORIA will follow the event from Turkana lake in Kenya (see G1 on figure). At this site the totality duration will be approximately 15 seconds. The time chart below shows all the relevant times of the event. Expedition leader, Dr. Miquel Serra-Ricart, astronomers of IAC, Canary Islands, and Dr. Paul Cox (SLOOH project) will provide commentary of the live event in English. The non-profit Shelios association (shelios.org) is responsible for the planning and logistics.

Broadcast

The total duration of the eclipse is 2h 15m. However the live broadcasting from the observation place will be of 15 minutes in total. There will be two live connections on November 3rd :

Connection 1: with a total duration of 5 minutes at 12:00-12:05 UT (09:00 to 09:05 Continental Chile)

Connection 2: with a total duration of 10 minutes at 14:20-14:30 UT (11:20 to 11:30 Continental Chile) to encompass the period of total eclipse.

The broadcast can be followed on the GLORIA web portal live.gloria-project.eu. More information can be found here.

Images collections from the past expeditions are available at:

GLORIA Flickr

StarryEarth Flickr

How it works?

Goria‘s team has produced a video in which they explain how the mission will be deployed, in order to see it just click here

Educational activity

Using the data collected by a weather station, an educational activity is proposed to be carried out:

Atmospheric parameters changes during the 2013 Total Solar Eclipse.