The proximity of the sunrise eclipse to Nova Scotia will undoubtedly tempt some observers to try a ship-board expedition from the eastern seaboard of North America. Though skies have a high frequency of cloud cover, the mobility offered by a ship should be able to overcome this deficiency, to some extent, provided good weather advice is available. The very low Sun angle at the start of the eclipse will seriously impede the search for a hole in any cloud cover which might be there, but provided the excursion is not just a day trip with little time for exploration, the effort has a good chance of being rewarded.

Black Sea prospects are comparable to nearby lands enjoying favorable climate statistics and the diminished influence of the variable westerlies. Mobility offers advantages similar to those described above.

Mean wave heights in the western Atlantic range between 1 and 1.5 meters off of the Nova Scotia coast, making time-exposure photography a little challenging, particularly through a telescope. Waves on the much smaller Black Sea tend to keep under 0.5 meters except near the Turkish coast where the prevailing winds have the entire length of the sea to build wave heights.

Adapted from NASA RP 1398 "Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11".

WebMaster: Fred Espenak Planetary Systems Branch - Code 693 e-mail: espenak@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 USA