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Briefing sessions took place several weeks before the departure
at La Maison de Jeunes Les Terraces at Filali Constantine
where the Association is holding its weekly meetings.
|
Working teams were designated |
The departure took place from the Ben Abdelmalek stadium
in downtown Constantine on Sunday 26 March. |
Leaving the beloved ones for an adventure in the middle
of the desert's wilderness. Is Mom's smile a genuine one
or an affected one?
|
The National TV covered the departure and interviewed the
participants. It was broadcasted the
next day at
the midday and evening news on both the ENTV and Canal Algérie. |
Departure at last !
|
The trip started with a hitch with an extenuous border crossing
- a mere 200 meters in 6 hours... which enabled us to cross
Southern Tunisia during day time! Here is Gafsa's central
place.
|
|
We reached Tripoli past mid day and we paid a courtesy visit
to our embassador there who was so helpful in securing from
the Libyan government our tax free passage to Libya.
|
A buffet was prepared for our delegation |
We presented a small gift to his Excellence, a copper engraved
plate with the effigy of the Sirius association.
|
The special map of the October 3rd 2005 annular eclipse
that was made by our association was also presented to the
embassador, while a dozen copies of it were given as a gift. |
We continued our trip through Libya and reached the next
day at sunset the outskirts of Awjilah, close from the Jalu
town. |
The sunset was the last one before the eclipse. It remained
now a small distance to Jalu, then some 80 Km straight South
to reach the central line of totality |
After some serious problems with the hosting company that
we solved in an Algerian way, we could finally insert ourselves
into the celebrating mood of the international camp.
|
A multimedia center where Internet connection was available
right at the camp, in the middle of a sea of sand. |
All the real action was outside as a festival was set up
by the Libyan authorities. |
Our members mingled with the various folkloric groups. |
The sunrise of a new day, the day when the Sun will be eclipsed. |
Some camp dwellers walking
away to an unknown destination
|
Venus is shining high above the Eastern horizon |
Some members of our group trying to catch up with the Fajr
prayer before dawn break
A glorious day has risen... |
Organizing ourselves and setting up our material |
Taking aim at the Sun
|
Nourredine from the Souha Association at Sétif, working
with Mustafa our former president of the Sirius Association
getting ready the CCD camera for capturing on the laptop
the eclipse sequence. |
Badreddine from the Celestial Cupola Association (at El
Oued ) setting up his apparatus so as to record the full
sequence of the eclipse on video. |
A feverish activity was noticeable in the midst of the forest
of tents where thousands of astronomers had their last night
before the eclipse.
|
Never had before the Libyan desert witnessed such a display
of sophisticated optical material. |
Our girls went into visiting the camp
|
Taking some poses with some well know astronomers.
|
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Listening to vivid explanations
|
Setting up telescopes on a moon like landscape. |
 From the
Far East to Jalu
|
Yoga in the desert, waiting for the totality. There is
no law against it!
|
We were honored by the visit of Hubert Reeves the famous
French astrophysicist and media superstar |
A group picture with H.Reeves and part of our delegation |
|
|
An Arizona eclipse hunter dropping by. |
Members of various press agencies stopping at our site.
Here the Director of the Sabratha Radio broadcast |
Here with the head of the Syrian's SANA press agency
|
The partial eclipse is progressing towards totality. Notice
the three sunspots near the limb. In the past few days the
Sun's surface has been sunspot free. The main sunspot (Sunspot
865) has continued to grow to become in the next few days
the biggest sunspot of 2006 so far.
|
Many onlookers were standing by our site . We had to organize
ad-hoc a visiting system wereby we allowed in the public
by groups of ten so as not to perturbate our scientific
program. We also provided continuous information on the
ongoing progress of the eclipse to the libyan public throughout
the morning. |
Lakhdar using the Sun projection technique on a screen |
Mustapha setting up the ETX90 for picture taking |
|
Kousouf prayers were held by various groups within the camp
throughout the eclipse |
As the eclipse is progressing and moving towards totality,
a perceptible darkening of the surroundings become noticeable. |
When the eclipse phase reached some 90%, the darkness has
strongly deepened and the drop in temperature has become
noticeable.
|
Then came the totality as a flash of darkness
|
The corona appeared in all its glory |
Few minutes before totality. The eclipse glasses have still
to be kept on. The whole scene became unreal. Darkness has
fallen on Earth in midday!
|
Here we are, the Sun has stopped shinning! |
We could sight Venus and Mercury and very few of the brightest
stars
|
Four minutes and 3s of darkness, close to the absolute maximum
of 4mn7s at the Tchado-libyan frontier.The eerie sunset
encircled the horizon. |
Chams our dedicated photographer pictured in action.
|
Return to normal state. Although the eclipse is still in
progress, the luminosity is back to its usual level. |
The Sun went through the same sequences but backwards. Here
the moment before the end of the eclipse, the last penumbral
contact.
|
Four minutes of totality, four minutes of immortality fixed
in our memories. The momentary dwellers of this desert camp
are now packing to go back North to their cosy hostels before
leaving to their countries. Tomorrow the desert will reclaim
back this tract of land that witnessed so momentous instants.
|
Back on the bus
|
Stop over at a coffee house on the way |
|
|
Stopping at Tajourah at the seacoast before reaching Tripoli
|
Sirius banderole deployed |
|
A view of the Tripoli planetarium that we snatched while
on the highway. Our plan was to visit it, but unfortuantely
the staff operating it was still at Jalu!
|
Back to the embassy building to brief the embassador on
the mission |
|
|
Showing his Excellency in exclusivity the pictures of our
trip |
|
Picture taking at the Embassy's entrance.
|
Visiting the Green Central Place in downtown Tripoli. |
Deambulating in the old city |
We had a stopover at a Youth Hostel at Sabratah where after
a much needed shower, we had few hours of rest before hitting
the road again towards home. |
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A life time experience for the participants! |
