Where: Salloum, Egypt (near Libyan border)

When: March 29, 2006

What: Solar Eclipse of the Sun
On Wednesday, March 29th in the far west of Egypt, photographer Bob Yen joined 8,000 tourists and astronomers from six countries, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, at the border town of Salloum to witness the full solar eclipse. The town lay nearly dead center in the path of the total eclipse, giving spectators nearly four minutes of darkness starting at 12:38 p.m. The “eclipse weather was perfect,” Yen reports. “The rain two days earlier cleared out the dust.”

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A total eclipse of the Sun was visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow began in Brazil and extended across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia where it ended at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse was visible within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.

Total eclipses are rare because they require the tilted orbits of the sun, moon and earth to line up exactly so that the moon completely obscures the sun. The last such eclipse in November 2003 was best viewed from Antarctic. The next total eclipse will occur in 2008.

Related Links:
http://solareclipse.textamerica.com
http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com
View a panorama of the partial eclipse here:
http://www.rcfisher.com/eclipse/partial_fs.html