World map with course of moons shadow
The eclipse of August 11, 1999:
Moon's shadow will reach its maximum expansion of approximately 112 kilometres
around 11:03 UTC over Romania, near Rîmnicu Vîlcea, Pitesti
and Tîrgoviste. The total eclipse will last there for approx. 2 minutes 22 seconds.

At that time the Moon will be around 373.000 kilometres away from Earth.
The sun will be approx. 152.000.000 kilometres away from Earth.
Around 6.007.000.000 people are now living on Earth.


August 11 in the past:
1877 Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moons Phobos and Deimos.
1960 The République du Tchad becomes independent.




Better safe than sightless:
Even when there is only a small visible part of the Sun left, the eyes
can be permanently harmed. The overall brightness of the Sun is reduced
but the remaining visible part is as bright as before. Upon a direct look
into the Sun,these energetic light-rays would hit the corresponding part
of the retina and could start a chemical reaction. It often takes hours
until the injury comes to attention. Most basic protection are goggles
especially certified for Sun observation.

Telescopes or telephoto lenses should only be used with special, well fitted,
lens filters for astronomical Sun observation/photography. The focused light
can quickly cause damage.

When your eyes begin to ache stop your observation immediately.

If there are no special Sun observation goggles at hand, one can observe the
eclipse indirectly. A simple method is to punch a tiny hole into a cardboard.
The hole bends light like a lense. Hold the cardboard into the Sunlight.
Hold a second, rather dark, cardboard as a projection screen under the first
cardboard. Vary the distance between the cardboards until you have a round
spot of a few millimeters in diameter. This projection of the Sun will shrink
during the eclipse and then grow again.

Never look through the hole directly at the Sun.

You may get a better image when you use a cardboard box to shield stray light.
You would look at the projected image through an additional larger opening in
the side of the box.


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