Total solar eclipse aug. 1st 2008

This summer we made a trip over the Trans Siberia and Trans Mongolian railway. We wanted to watch the solar eclipse of aug. 1st, visit Mongolia and complete the yourney across the continent in Beijng and Shanghai.

On July 26th we travelled to Novosibirsk (Russia) to witness the total solar eclipse of aug. 1rst 2008. We arrived there on the evening of July 31st. In the morning of aug. 1st the sky was still overcast and things didn't look promissing. However from noon onwards the clouds broke and we drove to a spot near the Ob lake eastcoast. Still a lot of clouds were there but from 15h the sky cleared out and one hour before first contact it was totally clear except for a few clouds at the horizon.

The eclipse itselfd must well have been one of the most beautiful I ever have seen. It became darker then during the previous eclipses I'd seen and the darkening towards totality went much faster. This was due to the fact that the path of totality lied almost perpendicular to the earths rotation (i.e. NNW - SSE)/ Therefore totality lasted only 2m19 and things happened fast around totality. The shape of the moons shadow was very nice visible cause the shadow's shape was very eliptic. Therefore the WSW and ENE horizons were very dark and reddish as the NNW and SSE horizons were more yellow. Below are some pictures.

Some pictures of the environment

Crescens projected by leafs

At 90% the sky gets an odd colous and the light dimms

Short before second contact

The shadow approaches

The sky shortly after second contact.

The sky 10 seconds before third contact

Short after third contact, the shadow disappears to the left

The eclipse

Pictures of the solar eclipse. All taken withoud a tripod and using a Tamron 18-250mm lens at 250mm.