The Right Place at the Right Time — August 12th, 2008 by Guillermo Gonzalez
On the first day of this month, thousands of people traveled to a narrow strip of land stretching across Siberia, Mongolia and China. Their common purpose was to observe an uncommon phenomenon—a total solar eclipse. However, minutes before totality, observers in one popular location in China were despondent. Clouds were covering the Sun. Then, just moments before the big show began, the clouds parted like curtains opening to reveal an actor on a stage. The sky darkened and the Sun’s pearly white corona became visible. When it was over, the observers broke into applause—a scene that was repeated at many other locations along the eclipse path.
People go to great lengths to witness events like this. Not only did they have to travel (considerable distances, in some cases) to position themselves along the narrow eclipse track, they also needed to maneuver to avoid cloud cover. No one on the ground would have seen the eclipse if the clouds had prevailed along the entire eclipse path.