Hi everyone,

sitting in a grimy Internet café in Villacastín in Spain (oh, you never heard of that one: Leave Madrid on the A-6 towards A Coruña and turn right after 70 km, having crossed a mildly stunning mountain range) is not exactly my idea of a nice holiday, but the nice thing is that Villacastín was smack on the central line of today's annular solar eclipse.

It was one hell of sight. Weather was fricken great. cloud hanhging in the valleys of the mountain range. Otherwise, not a cloud in sight. Of course, the magic moment of totality is something I missed greatly, but apart from that, it was all there. The gradual drop in temperature (man, it was that cold - I never thought I would be aching for gloves on a sunny day in Spain that is actually giving me a sunburn); the little eclipse images through the leaves of a nearby olive tree; the noticable blurring of shadows; the dying down of bird songs; you could notice that things were getting darker. I suddenly had to strain my eyes a bit looking at the settings and image counter of my old Canon A-1, and the sunlight was not really, you know, sunlight. Not burning. Soft. I risked a fleeting glimpse towards the sun, and you could see that something is very wrong here.

I obvserved the eclipse though a 4" refractor fitted with Baader sun protection foil and a Solar Continuum filter. This filter is supposed to improve detail and focus definition, which it does. You have to get used to a bright neon-green sun, though. Unfortunately, there weren't any details on the Sun - that's solar minimum for you.

I planned to upload my images right after the eclipse, but unfortunately, I do not have a card reader with me, and the Internet café is not equipped with one. That'll have to wait until Wednesday.

Anyone else who had a nice sight today?

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Entusiastas españoles de la astronomía:

Si usted quisiera comentar respecto al eclipse, usted puede escribir su poste en español y traducirlo al inglés, después copia y pega aquí. Seleccione la "lengua filetea" en www.Google.com. El grammer será tan malo como esto, pero el mensaje será fácil de leer.

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

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Massage above is an invitation to Spanish speaking posters with a link to the Google translation page so they can post in English. (The page may not always correct for grammar.)

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"Insignificant molehill sometimes more important than conspicuous mountain." - Charlie Chan

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"A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire.
"All your bias are belong to us" Ara Pacis.

Not quite! Eroicaed!

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"Insignificant molehill sometimes more important than conspicuous mountain." - Charlie Chan