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 Most viewed - Total Solar Eclipse - March 2006 |
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Pre-Totality 6303 viewsAnd Baghdad darken and the bridge
Across the silent river gone
And through Arabia the edge
Of evening widen and steal on
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First Contact296 viewsAt 12:39:58.1, local time, the Moon starts to encroach on the disk of the Sun. Since there is not much to say about partial phase eclipse images, I have captioned them with stanzas from Archibald Macleish's poem "You, Andrew Marvell" - a magical piece which best conveys the awe and wonder of the stunning natural spectacle we know as a total eclipse of the Sun - and, in the case of the post-totality shots, a few verses from other metaphysical works.
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Post-Totality 1291 viewsThe Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.
- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
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Pre-Totality 10289 viewsNor now the long light on the sea:
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Post-Totality 4280 viewsAt this point I ran out of film, so I didn't make it to Fourth Contact with the post-totality images.
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Totality 2263 viewsIf you look closely, a prominence can be seen at approximately 9 o'clock on the disk of the eclipsed Sun.
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Pre-Totality 5250 viewsAnd now at Kermanshah the gate
Dark empty and the withered grass
And through the twilight now the late
Few travelers in the westward pass
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Pre-Totality 2250 viewsAnd here face down beneath the sun
And here upon earth’s noonward height
To feel the always coming on
The always rising of the night:
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Pre-Totality 7250 viewsAnd deepen on Palmyra’s street
The wheel rut in the ruined stone
And Lebanon fade out and Crete
High through the clouds and overblown
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Totality 1249 viewsAnd here face downward in the sun
To feel how swift how secretly
The shadow of the night comes on ...
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Diamond Ring249 viewsThe Diamond Ring heralds the end of totality at 13:58:47 local time.
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Pre-Totality 4246 viewsAnd strange at Ecbatan the trees
Take leaf by leaf the evening strange
The flooding dark about their knees
The mountains over Persia change
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