November 3rd: Solar Eclipse
Yesterday morning, November 3rd, a buzz went around the ship that we were going to witness a 90% solar eclipse as we finished coring in the eastern basin of the Atlantic Ocean. We were actually all out on deck at the peak of the eclipse (about midday GMT), waiting for a coring device to be retrieved back onto deck. However, alas, it was cloudy! We’ve been sitting in a monsoonal depression for a few days and have had a lot of cloud cover and downpours. I was out on deck and, I think we all agreed, it was darker than usual, but no one could agree as to whether it was because it was particularly overcast.
Later on in the day, we had confirmation that the ship’s light sensors had picked up the blocking of the sun’s light as the moon passed between it and the Earth. Less of a spectacle than we all hoped for, but interesting nonetheless.
Today, of course, the sun is shining!
Blog Written By: Kate Hendry
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