Today, the 1st of September 2016, marks an interesting astronomical event; an Annular Solar Eclipse! Fortunately for us, this event will be visible in Mauritius to a max 90% at certain places. During the previous days this has been the talk of the week and the precautions to be taken during the event were being repeated again and again. At all cost, not to watch the sun with the naked eyes. However, not much preparations were involved from the authorities for the distribution of solar filter eyewears and it is only as from the morning of the d-day that a long queue could be found in front of the science centre for the sale of these glasses.
Before leaving home this morning I prepared all my gears with the hope to be able to take some interesting pictures and I didn’t have this solar filter eyewears either. I planned my spot on the Pailles Mountain (no hike necessary, road accessible) and on my way to the spot at 12h15pm I passed by the Science Centre, which is on the way, and noticed that the sale of these glasses was still on. I jumped in the queue but some minutes later it was announced that all were over and no more glasses were available.
Luckily I managed to convince a lady who didn’t appear to keen about the event to sell her pairs to me, which she did. I went up the mountain on my motorbike and prepared my gears. For sure, without such filters it would be somewhat impossible to get a good shot of the eclipse. I spent like two hours till the eclipse was practically over and went back to office as if nothing happened.
By the afternoon all these buzz were forgotten and everyone went back home.
