Emilia vexler
12/14/2020 11:31 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 12/14/2020 11:31 AM
Like any great spectacle in times of coronavirus, this Monday's eclipse will be streamed in most of the world.
But Argentina will be lucky enough to
feel the force of two stars live
: there will be a total solar eclipse.
The luxury stalls will be in Patagonia.
Clarín
traveled to
Piedra Del Águila
, a small town of 5,000 inhabitants in the southeast of Neuquén, which is already featured in notes from the British BBC, the American CNN and the German DW for being a privileged spot for this phenomenon.
With sold-out seats, and under a strong wind, there is a strong expectation.
If all goes well -because until this morning the community of astronomers and astronomers in Argentina was changing locations due to the clouds and the furious wind-, while you are doing whatever you do, it may be that
at 1:14 p.m. the night will put you through the window
.
That is the exact time when the Moon will completely cover the Sun and turn a common midday into a starry night in Piedra del Águila.
Then it will go through the Argentine soil from west to east until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.
It is not just another eclipse.
It is the first total solar eclipse of the decade
.
And for the time of year and the time when it will happen, the expectation is hot:
"the best solar eclipse of the century"
, some already predict.
It will be visible in its “totality” phase in the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro, and as partial throughout the country.
In Buenos Aires, the Sun will be
covered by 75%
.
Why is it so special?
In itself, the possibility of visualizing a total solar eclipse from a specific location on the earth's surface
is very low
.
From Argentina you will not be able to see another like it
until December 2048
.
In 2021, one will be visible only from Antarctica, and in February 2027, another will be visible but of the annular type.
The kind where the Moon is too far away to completely block the Sun from view and leaves a circle of light around it.
Something "warm" compared to the night when your cell phone just switches to PM.
The 2020 total solar eclipse will
be “Patagonian”
in a strip 90 kilometers wide.
It will cross the Pacific Ocean from west to east and will cross the Chilean border, north of the Lanín volcano, passing through Piedra del Águila and ending on the Atlantic coast at Bahía Creek.
Everything will last
approximately two hours
, between 11:43
a.m.
- when the partial phase begins - until around 2:48 p.m.
And you have to know that each observation point has its own instants of time.
But the phase of "totality" - the "night in the day" -
will last little more than 2 minutes
and will occur in the middle of the interval: at 1:14 pm, in the case of Piedra del Águila.
Solar Eclipse 2020 - Video: NASA - Total Eclipse coverage in South America
Coverage of the Total Eclipse 2020 - NASA
Due to the pandemic, of course, the millionaire international astronomical tourism was in the shadows in our country.
At the Neuquén airport, this weekend the "eclipse chasers" were very much needed.
No space fans were seen coming from all over the world wearing Carl Sagan T-shirts.
But a star for tourism continued to shine.
“There is
total occupation
in Piedra del Águila.
You can exceed the 10,000 expected visitors.
Only 186 foreign tourists entered ”, said the Minister of Tourism of Neuquén, Marisa Focarazzo.
"We will prepare food, because the gastronomic system is going to collapse," they anticipated
Clarín
from the Neuquén Ministry of Tourism, which set up a special tent for journalistic coverage.
The observation ground is an immensity of green.
It's like a muted Lollapalooza of the universe.
There is no entrance fee, there are no turnstiles, but there are chemical toilets and a lot of expectation.
Around noon on Monday, the wind dissipated the clouds, making this town even more perfect for viewing the phenomenon.
But you have to dodge the hairs and the tents come off the ground.
Dakar weather
.
If a
total solar eclipse
is a very sporadic phenomenon for a certain point on Earth, why is Argentina so privileged in eclipses (we had another total solar eclipse on July 2, 2019)?
Due to its enormous extension, especially in latitude, North and South.
That gives you a better chance of having a strip of totality - a total eclipse - in your territory.
In a span of 30 years, counting last year and 2048,
we will have three
.
But it is not possible to delimit an exact interval between one and the other, because it is "touching" different geographical areas.
An eclipse occurs
when the Moon hides the Sun from the perspective of the Earth
, as the three celestial bodies are aligned with each other.
The type of solar eclipse depends on the Perigee and Apogee (minimum and maximum distance of the Moon from the center of the Earth, in its elliptical orbit).
But that's Level 1 astronomy. An eclipse like the one in 2020
is much more "emotional" than that
.
Tourists and neighbors came to Piedra del Águila to see the solar eclipse.
Photo Fernando de la Orden
"A total solar eclipse is
the greatest astronomical spectacle of nature
."
It is said by an Argentine who has already seen two.
In 1994, in Bolivia, and last year, in San Luis.
And who is not just a fan of starry nights.
He is the head of scientific dissemination of the Buenos Aires Planetarium.
On the route of the 2020 total solar eclipse, Mariano Ribas decided to stop to see it in Las Grutas, Río Negro.
Despite your calculations, not moving in the kilometers.
Dodge the clouds and look for the best spot.
It may end in Eagle Stone.
"This year the total solar eclipse will be at noon, with the sun above our heads, unlike last year, which was lying on the horizon.
The perception is completely different
”, he explains to
Clarín.
There is the key to so much expectation.
In addition to observing with binoculars and a telescope, the expert will make
a photo book of the eclipse
.
Not like the thousands that from this site will fill the hashtag #Eclipse 2020 on Instagram.
Something much "closer" that, at the same time, happens millions of kilometers from all the eyebrows and chins that will point to the sky.
Prepared for the eclipse, the freak hunters are ready at Eagle Stone.
Photo Fernando de la Orden
Astronomers and eclipse hunters are
"backpackers of lenses
.
"
They charge thousands of dollars in equipment that allows to record each phase. They wait more than 20 years for an event that barely exceeds 120 seconds. Ribas has an apochromatic refractor telescope. And He does not wear the cardboard glasses of the 3D cinema.Each device has its filter to avoid damaging the eyes.
“I am interested in the photos in the partial phases, in the 'totality' phase (the“ night ”that gives it its name of total eclipse), the solar corona -detail- and what is called 'diamond rings', which are the first flash just before totality and the first flash just after ”.
But there is something else.
Those who love the stars - and have the lenses to do so - will seek to register if there are solar prominences.
And that puts the experts on fire.
“They are great tongues of hot gas that rise on the edge of the Sun. And when the Moon 'shims' in front, they appear like little pink curls.
It is an awesome thing.
Impress yourself,
”says Ribas.
While the rest will be left with their mouths open behind the mask - and will say the obvious without guilt: "It got dark!" - these people
will
also
measure the temperature
.
Because beyond the spiritual and visual, an eclipse like this will bring perceptible sensations on the skin.
“In the last eclipse the temperature dropped 7 degrees in San Luis.
This time it will also happen ”, he assures.
And it can be more marked.
As if the entire Patagonia opened the freezer for a moment
.
Anything else?
Yes. The wind will start to blow and the profile of the shadows will change, which will be less rounded and more “sharp”, because the light in the eclipse phases is more “discreet”.
The fundamental difference of this eclipse with that of last year is not going to be the duration - today's will be between
2:07 and 2:09 minutes
and last year it reached 2:20 - but the height and time of the year:
the Sun will be almost zenith (totally vertical)
and the phenomenon will occur days before summer, when last year it was in winter.
It will be more “flashy”.
Technically -in Level 1 of astronomy- it is not “the eclipse of the century”, because that is what the longest eclipse is called (the one in Mexico, in 1997, lasted 7 minutes and was the most important of the last century).
But, undoubtedly, an "eclipse" is expected.
We will have to wait until 2048 to see if this Monday, then, stops being "the best eclipse of the century."
Eagle Stone. Special sent.
DD