SkyStef's weather & aviation page
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SkyStef's weather & aviation page |
Picture of the month February 2011
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| Picture taken at Steenokkerzeel on January 4, 2011. |
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The new year 2011 started well for the stargazer with
on January 4 over many parts in the world a very nice partial solar
eclipse. It happens when the Moon glides slowly in front of the Sun leaving
a shadow on Earth. On a fixed spot on Earth, lunar eclipse are rather rare
(roughly once every 5 years) and a full eclipse is even extreme rare
(roughly once every 100 years). Last full eclipse in Belgium took place on
August 11 1999, the next one is scheduled for 2090. Partial eclipse are
lucky a bit more frequent and although less spectacular, the different
percentage of coverage by the Moon makes it always a bit special. On January 4 2011, half an hour after sunrise and on its highlight, 75% of the Sun's disk was covered by the Moon. Lucky one break of 20 minutes in the cloud was sufficient to witness this spectacle from Brussels Airport, of course in combination with a flying by aircraft. More pictures of January 4 2011: Sun eclipse (without aircraft) and Sun eclipse (with aircraft) |
