Partial Solar Eclipse in Cyprus – www.eclipsetours.com

I along with my wife Lynn Palmer traveled to Cyprus in order to observe a partial solar eclipse lasting about 146 seconds with a maximum coverage at central eclipse of about 36% of the Sun’s surface covered by the Moon. Most people would never travel so far for a partial eclipse since such an event does not cause the sky to become dark or perhaps instill some magical qualities to those who watch them. Also, if the sky is clear, you must use a special filter to watch the process so your eyes will not be impacted. On the upside, the eclipse is still fascinating to watch and you don’t have to battle the crowds or face problems getting accommodations or transport to and from the destination.

For this event I chose a site near the Dhekilia British sovereign base southeast of Larnaca that was situated on the beach. We were there from October 23-26 with the eclipse occurring the afternoon of October 25. Each day from October 21 it had been clear both day and night so we were very optimistic. Cyprus was not the location with the longest eclipse, but it was a place where the likelihood of good weather was very high. We were not disappointed!

The hotel was full and we discovered on day one that our balcony, although having a great view of the water, could not view the Sun during eclipse time. After a fruitless attempt to change rooms (there were no open rooms) I was able to negotiate setting up on the roof of the hotel (7 stories high) about 96 ft above the ground. This proved advantageous in that there were several locations out of the hot Sun which I could use as photographic spots. Our plan was for Lynn and I to use similar cameras to shoot the eclipse and for each of us to take some time to quickly roam the grounds looking for crescent shadows.

This discouraging sign was not placed here for the eclipse. Lynn Palmer photo.

Dawn on October 25, a Tuesday and a spectacular sunrise as seen from the hotel restaurant area. Photos without credit are all by Paul D. Maley

Problem 1: forbidden roof access solved with cooperation of the Golden Bay Beach hotel manager Anthos Asmenis. Lynn Palmer photo.

I was 7 stories up as seen from the beach. Lynn Palmer photo.

Main site: Using the hotel’s satellite dish as a sun blocking device. It was not necessary to mount the camera on a tripod in order to achieve good photos. Lynn Palmer photo.

Backup site: Using a well located wall to block sporadic wind gusts. Lynn Palmer photo.

A view from the roof looking down at the beach.

In exchange for using the roof Lynn showed several staff members the eclipse in progress through #14 welder’s glass. They all enjoyed it.

The Sun at 1215pm before the eclipse began. Lynn Palmer photo.

First contact at around 1249pm local time with two sunspots visible: (left to right) AR3131 and AR3126. Sun images shot with Nikon Coolpix P950 at ISO 400, 1/800 sec, f/8, ND5 filter, using the viewfinder for image sizing.

203pm the eclipse reached maximum coverage–36% of the Sun was obscured. One sunspot remains visible

My last image taken nearly at 4th contact at 315pm. Both sunspots are now visible.

Actual weather on eclipse day across Europe. You can see that where we were in the eastern Mediterranean Sea it was very clear.

CRESCENT SUNS PRODUCED BY PLANTS AND TREES

One of the challenges I had was to see if I could find any foliage that would produce decent crescent Sun images through their left configurations. There is no handbook on this so I conducted a survey of plants within the hotel area and took photos of as many candidate trees/plants as possible. Most produced no useful images at all. Perhaps with a much larger percentage Sun coverage this task might have been easier. But a couple of them did reveal crescents as did projection through a hotel restaurant chair. Below show 8 areas where I examined the local foliage. It was definitely easier to find trees that failed to project rather than ones that did given the coverage of the Sun. Readings were taken between 20-36% coverage. It would be interesting to examine plants and trees in the future in areas with similar plant species under a much greater partial eclipse.

Overview map of the hotel and adjacent grounds. There were 8 areas surveyed during the eclipse time frame. We found good crescent shadows in area 4 and 8 and are hoping to get the plant identities. Unfortunately I do not have complete identifications of all plants and trees in the examined locations.

Oleander. The above did not produce crescents; location in area #5.

Here is bush#1 (above) that did produce crescents below is called Hibiscus rosa-sinensis; location area #8.

Good crescents from Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. Lack of clarity is due to a lot of wind that caused distortion.

Tree #1 that produced good crescents located on a walkway east of the hotel leading to the beach; location area #1.

Tree #1 crescents projected onto the wall adjacent to the walkway east side.

Tree #2 in the hotel parking lot; location area #4.

Tree#2 crescents that projected onto the main entrance to the hotel parking lot. I had to be careful not to be run over by cars entering the blind entrance to take this photo.

Tree#3 located beachfront just to the east of the hotel; location area #2.

Crescents cast by tree #3.

Tree#4 that cast good solar crescents. Pony Tail Palm.

Crescents cast by tree#4. Best crescents are above center. Location in area #5.

Square holes in a chair project partly as crescents. Lynn Palmer photo.

MISCELLANEOUS IMAGES FROM THE TRIP

Post eclipse lunch from the buffet.

A squashed sunrise. Near the horizon you can get some really interesting image changes depending upon the makeup of the local atmosphere. Lynn Palmer photo.

A Mediterranean sunset distorted by air pollution along the horizon (or an orange light bulb stuck in the dirt).

Local restaurant cat underfoot during some meals

Meals were interesting. This one features quinoa and shrimp along with a Coke Zero. Lynn Palmer photo.

In order to get to Cyprus all of our international flights were on United Airlines. They published a new napkin with an Arizona theme.

Masks required on Aegean Airlines? This is what we used to travel between Athens and Larnaca, Cyprus and between Athens and Santorini. No enforced masking was seen!

Originally I had planned to travel to Dubai to see the eclipse; however, the airfares became too expensive so the plan was changed to Cyprus.

Meanwhile, in Dubai Elliot Lepler was lucky enough to be in the Louvre Museum Abu Dhabi and took this shot of people walking on solar crescents as well as crescents projected onto the walls. Elliot comments “The eclipse reached 50% at 3:45 in the afternoon. The roof of the courtyard has multiple layers creating the pinhole like openings.” Photo by Elliot Lepler.

A Coke Zero can. It is traditional for me to drink this on eclipse day.

Another Coke Zero in a bottle after the eclipse. Lynn Palmer photo.

Interesting donut formation in the hotel restaurant on eclipse day.

I had brought a coat and this was Aegean Airlines solution: a coat hanger attached to each seat. However, it was impossible to use as all of these were failed installations!