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Astronomer from Siberia goes to Australia to watch solar eclipse

The eclipse when the Moon fully blocks the Sun will occur on November 14, 2012

NOVOSIBIRSK, November 8 (Itar-Tass) — Director of a planetarium in Western Siberia Sergei Maslikov, the only astronomer in Western Siberia, joined an expedition of astronomers from Moscow and St.Petersburg who left for Australia on Thursday to watch the solar eclipse. The eclipse when the Moon fully blocks the Sun will occur on November 14, 2012 and will be best seen from Australia.

Astronomy lovers from all over the world will gather in the town of Cairns in the north of the Australian continent. The Russian astronomers will not miss the chance of photographing the solar crown which might be seen from the Earth during a few rare minutes while the eclipse continues.

The Russian expedition is also planning to visit the most frequented places of interest in Australia- observatories, planetariums and museums in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane. The expedition is planning to take pictures of the southern sky, inaccessible to residents of the Northern hemisphere, and an interesting phenomenon known as the Maggelanic clouds.

The full solar eclipse was last seen in Novosibirsk on August 1, 2008. Afterwards, two more similar phenomena - the solar eclipses in China and on the Easter Island, occurred in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

The full solar eclipse will occur in Australia on November 14. The epicenter where the eclipse will be best seen is the town of Cairns on Australia's northern coast. As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun.

One might watch the full solar eclipse within a relatively small range covered by the moving shadow of the Moon, with the Moon shadow usually hanging over one percent of the overall surface of the Earth. The full solar eclipse occurs once in every eighteen months.