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| Day 10:
Eclipse Day! Because of fears of the heat, we
didn't want people spend more time than necessary
at Basnik (also called Bagdere). Therefore, buses
were scheduled to go out at 10 AM for the early
crowd and 11 AM for those not bringing a lot of
equipment. I went out on the early bus. Three
hours before 1st contact may seem like a lot of
time, but it really wasn't. |
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| I
was in the group that set up at the secondary
site, which was next to a turkey farm. Bad puns
about observing in Turkey with the turkeys
abounded. Every so often, a Kurd would drive up
to the turkey farm, hop the fence, grab a turkey,
throw it in the trunk of the car, and drive off.
Must have been for dinner. Steve
Edberg, Carter Roberts, Alson Wong and I set up
our instruments there. Other members of the group
joined us later.
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 The Japanese Set Up
on One Side
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| We
were warned to drink lots of water and came with
3 liters each. Must of us did fine in the heat,
but a couple needed treatment. Jay Anderson
measured the temperature at 107 degrees at the
lower site while Carter Roberts measured it at
103 degrees by the turkey farm. The
lower site was a zoo. There were people crawling
all over the place. It was a fun atmosphere, but
hardly a place to do serious work. I heard
several complaints later that observers were
getting crowded while they were trying to take
photographs.
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 The
Temperature was 10 Degrees Cooler in the Tents
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| Tee
shirts, caps and soft drinks were being sold,
music was being played, the Kurds were breaking
out into song and dance wherever you looked. |
 Eclipse
Viewers Set Up at the Eclipse Site
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 Kurdish
Folk Dance at the Eclipse Site in Basnik
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| Meanwhile, up at the turkey
farm, the excitement was really starting to grow.
First contact was at 1:16 PM, local time. Steve
Edberg let out his usual sigh of relief when he
found out that not only did we have the right
day, we were at least in the path of partiality. The
partial phases progressed and covered a very nice
sunspot group. We enjoyed showing the local Kurds
views of the partial phases and they seemed
genuinely appreciative.
Now, it was time for the
real action. Second contact was at 2:39 PM. You
could cut the excitement with a knife. At the
precise moment, Steve yelled out "Filters,
pull your filters!"
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 Inspector
Gadget
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 A
Laid Back Californian
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 Must be
Expecting Rain
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