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Clouds over Athens “hid” the solar eclipse

04 January 2011 / 22:01:09  GRReporter
3050 reads

Anastasia Balezdrova

Yesterday's torrential rain failed to clear the skies over Athens. From early morning gray and heavy clouds did not allow the sun to appear and along with this to be observed the phenomenon of the partial solar eclipse by the moon disk.

This, however did not prevent at least a dozen of amateur astronomers to place their telescopes on the sidewalk in front of the building of the planetarium in the Greek capital. Some children had gathered around them, waiting to see the natural phenomenon with a genuine interest.

The weather in Athens, however, had very different plans. Exactly at 10:23 the astronomers who had focused their telescopes on the bright gap between the gray clouds started as if coordinated to look through them, but failed to see the peak of the partial eclipse.

A little later, and only for a few minutes the clouds split, and astronomers still caught a few moments of the eclipse.

"The partial solar eclipse can be seen from all over Greece. In Athens the blackout of the sun disk by the moon will reach just a bit over 60%. The further north we are, the greater part of the sun can be seen to be covered by the moon" told for GRReporter the Vice-President of the Hellenic Union of amateur astronomers Aris Milonas.

According to him, throughout the whole Greece there are over 1000 amateur astronomers who are organized into 15 companies. Many of them came today and explained to their "unenlightened" fellow citizens "the secrets" of the partial solar eclipse.

In the skies over Athens, it started at 8:58, reached its peak at 10:23 and ended shortly before 12:00.

In front of the planetarium had also come enthusiasts who were trying to observe the natural phenomena with special glasses. There were also those who used more available tools such as metal foil sheets.

And because according to astrology, solar eclipses, even the partial ones impact on our mood and behavior, we decided to ask the opinion of one of the most famous astrologers in Greece Virginia Leousi. Here's what she told us:

"Eclipses do not always predict a catastrophe. Often, they simply highlight our weaknesses and show us what we should pay attention to in order to deal with "hanging" tasks. Today's partial solar eclipse affects mostly the representatives of the signs Capricorn, Cancer, Libra and Aries, who were born in the second decade. Capricorns will feel the need to change their home or work and will be ill-minded to some things. In the case of the Cancers the blackout affects the psyche. They will become very competitive and should be careful about how they treat other people from their environment. The difficulties for the Aries will increase and it will be hard for them to make decisions. Libras on the other hand will feel a great need to change the objects from their interior, but they shouldn’t do it if they have not arranged it in advance".

According to the astrologer the blackout does not directly affect Greece as the Prime Minister George Papandreou is a representative of the sign Gemini, and hence the country is Aquarian. On the other hand, however the period is favorable for social unrest and changes in the political and religious life of the country.

The days of influence of the eclipse are three: the day before, the day during and the day after the eclipse.

Tags: partial solar eclipse astronomy astrology
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