Next year 1st September of 2016, we are going to be the lucky guys to witness an annular solar eclipse!!! A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. The annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring), "the ring of fire"! An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. The path of annularity for this eclipse starts in the South Atlantic Ocean, crossing central African regions of Gabon, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Mozambique before passing over Madagascar, the small island of Reunion before ending in Indian Ocean. Here is a map of its trajectory :
The best viewing is near the point of greatest eclipse in Tanzania, giving an annularity duration of 3 minutes and 6 seconds, so yes we will be ready for that here in Katavi and our friends in Mahale!!! Can't wait to witness this unique event in the middle of the african savanna!!! Here is the link to the Nasa'site for it!
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2016Sep01Agoogle.html
Julien