SOLAR ECLIPSE IS SOUTHLAND STOCKING STUFFER.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer As St. Nick heads back to the North Pole North Pole, northern end of the earth's axis, lat. 90°N. It is distinguished from the north magnetic pole. U.S. explorer Robert E. Peary is traditionally credited as being the first to reach (1909) the North Pole. In 1926, Richard E. early Christmas morning, he'll leave a rare gift not seen since 1954 and one that won't be seen again until the year 2307 - a partial eclipse. In Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , the Christmas Day eclipse will begin at 7:37 a.m. when the moon begins to cover the upper left edge of the sun. The moon will cover almost one-tenth of the sun's upper left corner at 8:23 a.m. and the eclipse will end at 9:13 a.m. The eclipse will obscure 15 percent of the sun's diameter and be visible in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and most of North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . ``At the height of the eclipse, the sun will seem to have a small bite taken out of it,'' said Griffith Observatory Griffith Observatory is located in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Astronomer John Mosley. Solar eclipses Selected solar eclipses, past and future. Antiquity Date of eclipse Time (UTC) Type Central Duration (*) Eclipse Path Notes Start Mid End June 24, 1312 BCE - 10:44 - total 04m33s Anatolia Mursili's eclipse are highly dangerous if viewed without proper protection, Mosley warned. They should be viewed only through special glasses or with a solar filter attached to a telescope or binoculars, he said. He warned people of retina damage if they look directly at the sun. Camera stores and specialty retailers stock solar filters for telescopes. Griffith Observatory will be selling a Solarama, a safe glass solar viewer that can be used to observe the eclipse with the unaided eye for $6.95. The observatory will be open until 4 p.m. today but is closed Christmas Day. The partial eclipse will not throw Los Angeles into darkness. ``In this case, the moon covers only a small part of the sun and this is a partial eclipse,'' he said. ``So little of the sun is covered by the moon that the sky and ground will not darken dark·en v. dark·ened, dark·en·ing, dark·ens v.tr. 1. a. To make dark or darker. b. To give a darker hue to. 2. To fill with sadness; make gloomy. 3. noticeably. The casual pedestrian will not notice that anything is happening.'' Partial solar eclipses are not rare, but the timing of this astronomical event is unusual. In the 20th century, solar eclipses on Christmas Day occurred in 1954 and 1935. But the last one before that was in 1685 and the next one will not take place until 2037, Mosley said. Woodland Hills resident Ray Coutchie, the 84-year-old founder of the Polaris Astronomical Association, said the rarity of the event is wholly a function of celestial mechanics celestial mechanics, the study of the motions of astronomical bodies as they move under the influence of their mutual gravitation. Celestial mechanics analyzes the orbital motions of planets, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, and natural and artificial satellites . ``It has to do with celestial mechanics where the earth is in its orbit, where the moon is in its monthly cycle around the earth and where we are in relation to the sun,'' he said. ``It's just serendipity serendipity happy finding of an unexpected object or solution while searching for something else. .'' Los Angeles Astronomical Society member Polly Kiner, a resident of Canoga Park, said solar eclipses occur somewhere in the world every day. ``But you have to be in the right spot. North America is in the right spot this year.'' INFORMATION --For recorded information on the eclipse, call the Griffith Observatory at (323) 663-8171, or visit the Web site at www.GriffithObservatory.org. CAPTION(S): 2 boxes Box: (1) INFORMATION (See text) (2) TRACKING THE MOON'S SHADOW Source: Sky & Telescope magazine Associated Press |
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