General
Santos City, Philippines
General: Time 01h11m, Alt. 52 degrees, Saros 139,
path 173 km, duration 03m25s (Max 03m46s)
Travelled alone for my 5th central solar eclipse.
Stayed with family of Rading and Ester (and kids Roy and Ninya) in General
Santos City. B B Q, church service, etc., all for my birthday. Treated like a
king. General Ramos had the same birthday, was that time right hand of President
Cory Aquino.
After the service in the church, for my birthday, it was time for the eclipse. Two German and one Swiss came in the garden to observe in group. Under the palm trees, in the garden, the sun crescents appeared. But also more clouds. Nearly the whole sky was full of alto cumulus clouds. Through the clouds, you could see the sun crescent. Then the Baily’s beads, and a small diamond ring. Due to the clouds, it was not totally dark. Though it was hard to look around during totality. Due to the clouds the corona was not very big. A few beautiful prominences where at the edge. After one and a half minute, a big cloud came in front of the eclipse sun. And when the cloud disappeared, the totality was over. This was a double eclipse!
It started with a clear sky. But later there were more clouds. It looked all right but about 10 min before totality the clouds came. At a certain point it was that cloudy, that nothing was visible.
A lot of protection against guerrillas in Mindanao Island. The counter expected thousand of eclipse tourists. Though, only 200 arrived.
Picture by Patrick Poitevin
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