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The total eclipse lasted for 247 seconds (4 minutes 7 seconds)
On March 29, 2006, Ghana and other countries around the world experienced a total solar eclipse which was one of the country’s most popular astronomical events for decades.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the sun for a viewer on earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the apparent diameter of the moon is larger than that of the sun, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness.
The 2006 total solar eclipse was the second visible incident in Africa in just six months and its visibility was through a narrow corridor that crossed half the earth.
The full moon shadow path began at sunrise in Brazil and extended across the Atlantic to Africa, passing through Ghana, the southeastern tip of Côte d’Ivoire , Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Libya and a small corner of the northwest. Egypt, from there across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece (Kastellórizo) and Turkey, then across the Black Sea via Georgia, Russia and Kazakhstan to Western Mongolia, where it is finished at sunset.
The phenomenon lasted 247 seconds (4 minutes 7 seconds) and its band of maximum width covered an area of 114 miles.
Before the day, a national planning committee had educated citizens about the event and the need to avoid looking at it with the naked eye as it could cause irreparable eye damage.
The trend of the day was the popular eclipse goggles which were fitted with x-ray films and worn by millions of Ghanaians and foreigners who had traveled to the country to observe the event.
Then-president John Agyekum Kufuor, who was barely nine years old when the last total eclipse occurred in 1947, called the 2006 experience “tremendous.”
“Today, almost 60 years later, it is happening. It shows the beauty and wonders of nature;” he said.
While the total eclipse lasted just over 4 minutes across Ghana, the moon’s journey across the face of the sun began around 0800 hours and lasted up to about 1000 hours.
Scientists have predicted that the next total eclipse in Ghana will occur within the next 14,276 days on Friday, April 30, 2060, or around 39 years from now.
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