Solar eclipse to bring dim morning to Johannesburg‚ ring of fire to Tanzania

30 August 2016 - 20:07 By Bruce Gorton

South Africans will get to witness a partial solar eclipse on Thursday‚ with those in Johannesburg getting the best view. According to Nasa‚ the moon will pass in front of the sun on Thursday – producing a ring of fire in the sky for some of our northern neighbours.WATCH LIVE: Partial solar eclipse in South AfricaSouth Africans will be in for a treat on Thursday when they get to witness a partial solar eclipse‚ with those in Johannesburg getting the best view. Nasa has also produced an animation of the eclipse’s path:While the best viewing will be in Tanzania‚ South Africans will still get to experience a partial eclipse.Pieter Kotze‚ of the South African Space Agency‚ said the Eclipse will start at about 9:30 Pretoria time‚ and ends at 12:38‚ peaking at 11:02.Eclipses generally happen two or three times a year‚ but aren’t visible everywhere.Kotze warns that one should only observe the eclipse indirectly – using a pinhole camera to record the moon’s transit. Looking at it through sunglasses or telescopes‚ is a pretty good recipe for roasted retinas.“Never ever try and look into the sun‚ you don’t feel it but the damage is permanent‚” Kotze warned. “You only have two eyes.”Kotze said that the next total eclipse that we will get to see in Africa will be in 2030.Johannesburg can expect to see a partial eclipse covering about 40% of the sun‚ while Cape Town will only get to see about 15% of the sun covered.According to a report in Space Ref‚ researchers have published a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London showing that eclipses can have an impact on the weather.While measuring the impact of the March 2015 solar eclipse in Svalbard‚ Williams College professor Jay Pasachoff‚ former Fulbright visitor to Williams College Marcos Peñaloza-Murillo‚ recent alumna Allison Carter ‘16‚ and University of Michigan postdoc Michael Roman found that temperatures went from 8 degrees fahrenheit‚ to -7 a few minutes after the eclipse’s centre of totality‚ although they found it didn’t effect air pressure all that much.Kotze said because South Africa won't experience a full eclipse‚ the country won’t notice much of a temperature change.You can check out an interactive map showing the path of the eclipse on Nasa...

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