PHILIPSBURG–For those who believe in magic, it was the alchemical wedding of the sun god and the moon goddess. Others, who prefer science, called it a solar eclipse. Wherever you may fall between those two extremes, one thing is very factual about Monday’s solar eclipse – many who stood on St. Maarten staring up at the sky, peering through special glasses won’t see anything like it here again.
The “Great American Eclipse” as it was called by the United States (US) media was only a partial one for the people of the north-eastern Caribbean. The shadow of the moon only covered some 83.6 per cent of the sun, leaving a crescent-shaped sliver of the blazing hot star that is the centre of the solar system.
The eclipse started at 2:18pm and reached its maximum at 3:38pm. The shadow of the moon had completely receded from the face of the sun by 4:49pm.
The next total solar eclipse in those parts of the world will be on April 8, 2024, and parts of the United States will be witness to what will appear as the merging of the two heavenly bodies. However, this part of the Caribbean will barely be in the passage of the eclipse. On that day, all that will be seen from St. Maarten will be some 3.5 per cent of the sun kissed by the shadow of the moon. It will be nothing like moon blanket covering most of the sun as on Monday.
There will be an annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023, during which people on St. Maarten will see almost 40 per cent of the sun covered by the moon’s shadow. The key difference between an annular and total eclipse is that the moon is further away from the earth during an annular as compared to a total eclipse. This gives the appearance of the moon being smaller in the sky, and it no longer completely covers the sun.
The last partial solar eclipse seen on St. Maarten was on November 3, 2013.
Eclipses happen about once every 18 months. But, because Earth’s surface is covered mostly by water, they tend to occur over remote locations that are difficult for scientists to reach with advanced equipment for observation.
For most American scientists, Monday’s event was perhaps the most accessible total solar eclipse since the last one to touch the lower 48 states in 1979. And in those 38 years, their equipment and ability to study the phenomena have greatly improved.
Scientists hope their studies of this eclipse will lead to important discoveries about the sun’s mysterious corona, which burns more than a million degrees hotter than the sun’s surface.
Scientists have long been puzzled by the sun’s corona, the thin plasma veil that encases the star, because it burns more than a million degrees hotter than the sun’s surface. Only during totality is the corona visible from Earth.
Total solar eclipses are viewed as marvellous opportunities to study Earth’s intimate relationship with the sun.
The local fervour over Monday’s eclipse mostly started at the end of last week after at least one electronic store advertised special eclipse glasses for sale. These glasses were quickly snapped up for eager sky-gazers.
However, compared to the excitement in the US, where a total solar eclipse was last seen in 1918, the local reaction was pretty much mute and there was some disappointment. The latter came from people being caught up in the excitement driven by US-based information that led them to believe a total solar eclipse would be seen on the island as well.
The good part of the astrological event was most people were observed wearing protective eye glasses. Some tourists and residents alike took the approach of US President Donald Trump and stared to sky with naked eyes.
At sea aboard Oasis of the Sea, a cruise ship tied to St. Maarten’s cruise development, passengers had a special once-in-a-lifetime treat. Bonnie Tyler, the stellar guest on board, belted out her iconic hit from the 1983-“Total Eclipse of the Heart” before the ship sailed into the eclipse’s path of totality.
The more-than-three-decades-old hit song about to be in the right place at the right cosmic time reached its modern apogee on Monday when it hit number one on iTunes, ahead of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s Despacito.
As of early Monday, Tyler’s music video, published online in 2009, had amassed more than 305 million views on YouTube.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/68753-alchemical-wedding-as-moon-blankets-sun-in-solar-eclipse
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