Search
Recommended Products
Related Links


 

 

Informative Articles

5 Romantic Travel Resolutions
A new year always means a chance for a new start. You and yours can begin this new year by making some travel resolutions together, regardless of your time and budget restraints. Put aside those old travel habits and make some new ones! Let this...

Adventure Travel - an exciting Thrill?
Do you want to add a little adventure to your life? Do you want to be engaged in something you have never done before? The unique information here will help you to considering a vacation that will bring memories and expierences that will last a...

Becoming A Travel Writer
Things That Every Aspiring Travel Writer Should Know For anyone who's looking to get into travel writing, it is important to have had some experience in traveling. It is essential. This is where a writer obtains the materials that will...

How To Be Safe While Traveling
The most dangerous time in your life, when you are most likely to be attacked is when you are traveling in an unfamiliar area. Tourists are the favorite prey of the goblins of the world for the following reasons: They are easy to spot....

Tips For Traveling With Kids
TIPS ON HOW TO ENJOY TRAVELING WITH KIDS Thinking twice on bringing your kids along when you travel? Traveling with children need not be stressful. Here are few tips on how you can enjoy your trip with less trouble and more fun. *Plan...

 
Travel to Turkey for the 2006 Total Solar Eclipse

Wednesday March 29th 2006 will be a very special day in Turkey. Shortly before two o'clock in the afternoon local time an eerie darkness will descend across the land. Birds will begin to roost and streetlights will flicker on as the sun slips behind the moon in the first European total solar eclipse this millennium.

Standing in the path of a total solar eclipse is a dramatic and awe-inspiring experience. To watch the light fade from the sky and to see the last fiery wisps of the sun's disk be engulfed by the black moon is a stunning spectacle that stays with you forever. Adding to the thrill is the fact that the path of a total solar eclipse beats a track through Europe very rarely. The last was in 1999 when the path of totality passed through Cornwall (SW England); the next will be in 2026 when totality touches Northern Spain.

The eclipse begins across Turkey at around 12:45 in the afternoon, more than an hour before totality is reached. These early stages of the eclipse will go largely unnoticed. It is not until some 25 minutes before totality, when the sun's disk is more than half-covered, that it becomes noticeable that the light is fading. The ensuing half an hour is then nothing short of magical.

At t-minus 20 minutes the air is filled with the sounds of birds settling down for the night. A chill starts to circulate in the air and although the sun shines high in the sky, an eerie gloom reminiscent of a dull winter's afternoon establishes itself. The light only


fades slowly at first, but with 5 minutes to go the onset of darkness becomes ever more apparent. By this time the birds have gone quiet and little in the way of daytime wildlife stirs. In the last minute the light falls more rapidly as if it were late twilight, and with only seconds to go a huge dark shadow sweeps in at speed engulfing you in almost complete darkness, although the horizon all around you appears lighter. Looking at the sun, wisps of fire can be seen around the dark disk; close-by stars shine out from an ink-black background. Then, all too soon, the sun reappears in a dazzling display and totality is over.

For the best views of the total solar eclipse in Turkey, you'll need to locate yourself in the path of totality - a 100-mile wide swathe of darkness that runs northeastwards from Antalya on the Mediterranean coast to Samsun on the Black Sea. Outside this zone the eclipse will still be visible, but it will never reach totality.

International travelers should arrange their flights into Istanbul from where internal flights to Ankara and Antalya can be caught. The path of totality crosses the land to the south of Ankara and can be reached in less than an hour by hire care from the airport. Car rental can be booked in advance for pick-up at Antalya, Ankara or Istanbul airport through http://www.your-carhire.com

About the Author

Seb Jay is a professional copywriter specializing in the creation of original web content for http://www.your-carhire.com