Fifteen Thousand Citizens Observed the Solar Eclipse at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA)
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Alexandria — In an unprecedented gathering at the BA Plaza of Civilizations, thousands of citizens from all over Alexandria visited the BA to observe the solar eclipse today. Schools and universities scheduled visits to the BA to observe the phenomenon. The BA Planetarium Science Center provided the visitors with solar glasses to observe the eclipse, telescopes where visitors can observe the phenomenon from the beginning till the end, as well as screens airing the phenomenon through special video cameras.
Eng. Hoda El-Mikaty, Director, Planetarium Science Center stated that the center organized series of lectures from 22 March till 4 April 2006 targeting students to spread the awareness on the phenomenon. The center hosted leading international experts in astronomy to give specialized lectures on the phenomenon. The program included a lecture by Prof. Sandra Faber, University of California on Observation of Galaxies. General Relativity and Applications was the title of a lecture by Prof. Edmund Bertschinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Françoise Combes, Paris Observatory gave a lecture on Interstellar Medium of Galaxies: Dynamics and Star Formation, and Prof. Guinevere Kauffmann, Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics gave a lecture on Galaxy Formation Models.
Engineer Hoda El-Mikaty added that the Center also organized a camp to observe the eclipse in Al-Saloum, where the total solar eclipse every 300 years took place. The partial eclipse in Alexandria was almost 92% and ended at around 14:08 hrs.