Re: FWD: Total eclipse as seen by astronauts on the ISS

In article <1144751021.360038.297220@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Proponent <Proponent@xxxxxxx> wrote:
...a damn fine view from the southern shore of Turkey near Side.

Did you happen to notice the shadow as it approached over the
Mediterranean? I've heard it's possible to see it. I was in Side, but
in the heat of the moment I was too busy looking up.

I'd meant to look for it, but in the last moment before totality there are
just too many interesting things happening in too many directions. My
attention was caught by the fading light -- for some time the sunlight had
been looking pale and washed-out, but at the end you could *see* the light
dimming from second to second (and I was irresistably reminded of the "sun
going out" sequence in "A Fire Upon The Deep") -- and I was looking
neither up nor out until somebody yelled "diamond ring!". And then I was
looking up, at one last brilliant point of light shrinking and fading...
wham, darkness.

The stories are, incidentally, entirely correct about how totality *seems*
to last only a few seconds no matter how long it really runs. Three and a
half minutes for this one, and I've no idea where most of it went. Awesome.
--
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