Al-Shawaifi reveals secrets of total solar eclipse

The astronomer, Adnan al-Shawaifi, confirmed that the United States well experience a total solar eclipse on 21 August. It will be a special event in America and the total eclipse lasts for three hours and 13 minutes.

"The world will see a total solar eclipse, as the sun enters the orbit of the moon at 15:46 UTC, and the total eclipse begins at 16:48 UTC , and it will be visible, in this moment, only from the Pacific Northwest North America moving eastward towards the coasts," al-Shawaifi added.

"The total eclipse begins in Madras, Oregon, in the northwestern United States, where it has experienced a partial eclipse starting at 16:04 UTC, and the total eclipse begins at 17:15 UTC for about two minutes," he added.
 
He clarified that total eclipse is a dark circle representing the shadow of the moon, an average diameter of about 108 km, moving from west to east. "Its speed is about 3900 km / h, which is more than three times the speed of sound," he added.
 
Al-Shawaifi said the observer continues to watch the partial eclipse until 19:41 UTC with the rest of the neighboring areas to the north and south, which is experiencing partial eclipse only at varying rates, stressing that the path of partial eclipse is very wide compared to the total eclipse to reach the stage of eclipse to 9700 kilometers.

He said that the total eclipse track will move from the northeastern state of Oregon to the center of the United States, to cover 14 states, including Illinois.
 
"At 18:45 UTC, the total eclipse of the United States end in South Carolina, in the southeastern United States, where the sun is completely obscured for two minutes and 35 seconds," he said.
 
Many Arab and international media reported that the moon completely obscures the sun for an hour and a half, while al-Shawaifi says that the longest total blockage of sunlight is only 2 minutes and 41 seconds.
 
Shawafi denied that the August 21 eclipse would be the longest in history. "This event may be unique to the Americans, where the United States is the only country to witness total eclipse passes from the coast to the coast, " he indicated, noting that we can say that this the largest astronomical event of the year.
 
"Seven years ago, on July 22, 2009, the world experienced a complete eclipse longer than this eclipse by all standards, which cut the course of the Indian Ocean, China, India and Southeast Asian countries, which ended in partial eclipse on the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula," al-Shawaifi.