The Solar Eclipse in Turkey
August 11, 1999

There were a lot of great places in Europe to view this eclipse, especially southern Romania where the totality would last the longest (2 minutes 23 seconds). However, we chose the area around Sivas, Turkey, in central Anatolia because the chances of a clear sky was significantly greater and we would only lose 11 seconds off the maximum totality. We found a local school in the village of Hafik (near the centerline only 37 kilometers from Sivas and at 4200 feet elevation) that had been staked out the year before by a Japanese group who invited us to join them. The following  photos by Ed and Ruth document some of what we saw.

The day before the eclipse, a Muslim couple at a Sivas street fair sells images of the eclipse with Turkish scenes.	Protective glasses being passed out in a Sivas park, also the day before the eclipse.
Japanese eclipse chasers set up on school grounds in Hafik.	Ed and his main camera set up with one of the Japanese observers.

	The show begins: first contact at 1:06 pm, as the moon just begins to clip the edge of the sun (about the 2 o’clock position) on August 11, 1999, in Hafik. Note the faint sunspot group middle lower third of sun. An aluminized glass filter reduces the sun’s light to 1/100,000. The camera is a tripod-mounted Canon F1 with a 500mm mirror lens and a 2x converter (film is Kodak Gold 400).
	Mid-way between first and second contacts. The sunspot group is partially eclipsed.
	The sun is almost completed blocked by the moon just before second contact (totality).

	Totality—moon completely blocks the sun’s suface at 2:31 pm—lasted only 2 minutes and 14 seconds. Note the prominences (particularly the “detacted prominence” at about the 4 o’clock position) as well as inner corona. Shutter speed was 1/500 second, and no filter was used during totality.
	Mid-eclipse view of middle corona at longest shutter speed I could manage (about 1/30 second) without too much blur because of the earth’s rotation.
	Because the moon does not present a perfectly circular disk, part of the sun's photosphere peeks through one of the moon's valleys on the limb creating what is called the “diamond ring” effect as totality ends with the re-emergence of the sun at third contact.
	Appearance of the horizon during totality.

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