A Mosaic of Science and Culture

The solar eclipse appears when the moon disk passes for a short time in front of the visible part of the sun. The shadow made by the moon moves on the earth’s surface.

An eclipse of the Sun (or solar eclipse) can only occur at New Moon when the Moon passes between Earth and Sun.

Partial solar eclipse on 29^th of March 2006

The students of Istituto Comprensivo G.Verga di Gela went to Catania (100 km far from Gela) to see the solar eclipse at the Astrophysical Observatory.

They really enjoyed the experience since they could listen to the explanation of a Professor of the University in Catania and could follow all the Phases of the eclipse together.

 During the way they could take a glance to the Etna Volcano with some snow left (you can see the typical Sicilian environment with the Etna in the background).

The eclipse partial was observed by the students of the High school Nancho Popovich of Shumen with an telescope of 8 cm refractor on a screen. The solar eclipse started on 12.43 and ended at 15.11 local time.

These Sun spots are noted during our observation with the school telescope.

The students of the other countries coundn’t observe the eclipse, the sky was very cloudy, but they observed it by Internet.

The Spanish teachers and the Norwiegen teachers Kjell Oddmund Tjernsbekk and  who were at that time in Valencia observed the eclipse from the terrace of the house of Pilar Laguna. The night was warm and clear, and while we were taking a exquisite dinner we were able to observe the totality of the eclipse. The maxim occurred at around 23:20 UT. The totality lasted for 73 minutes. e light from the full moon washed out much of the constellation of Leo, however, Regulus and Saturn were still clearly visible.  It was a wonderful night for us.