Thousands Dazzled by Solar Eclipse!

　　December 7—Much of the southern half of the world saw one of nature's hottest shows earlier this week. Day became night for a few short minutes in southern Africa and Australia on Wednesday, as a solar eclipse brought darkness to these parts of the world.

　　"Solar eclipses are spectacular to watch because of the drama of the sky going dark in the daytime, the blue sky going away, and the rapid changes in the sun," said Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer from Williams College in Massachusetts.

　　Although the sun is almost completely blocked out during an eclipse, viewers must never look at the eclipse directly without special eclipse-viewing glasses. Looking directly at the sun can permanently damage your eyes.

　　A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blocking out all of the sun but its corona, or outer ring. Solar eclipses are possible only because the sun and the moon appear to be about the same size in the sky.

　　This is a real photo of tourists watching the solar eclipse in the town of Lyndhurst, Australia.(REUTERS/David Gray)

　　According to astronomers, or scientists who study space, the sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, but it is also about 400 times further from the Earth than the moon. Total eclipses happen about every one and a half years. The last one took place on June 21, 2001.

　　The solar eclipse was an exciting experience for people in both Africa and Australia. Thousands watched and cheered as the eclipse's path crossed the African countries of Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Mozambique.

　　"There, that's magic," said Cherry Hochfelden of Johannesburg, South Africa, as the sky turned dark.

　　After traveling across southern Africa, the eclipse crossed the Indian Ocean to Australia, where some 20,000 spectators were awaiting its arrival in the small town of Ceduna. Ceduna was one of only two Australian towns in the direct path of the total eclipse.

　　"It was the most amazing 30 seconds of my life. It was a shining white, purple ring," said Ivan Blajer, who traveled more than a 1,000 miles to watch the eclipse.

　　譯文：

　　幾千人被日蝕耀花眼

　　--勞拉·林供稿

　　12月7日—大部分南半球的人這個周的早些時候看到了大自然的最熱烈的表演。星期三在南非洲和澳大利亞白天變成了夜晚，日蝕將黑暗帶到這部分世界。

　　“日蝕是引人入勝的景觀，因為天空戲劇性地變黑了，藍天隱去了，太陽迅速地變化了，”潔·帕薩夫，一個來自馬薩諸塞威廉大學(xué)的天文學(xué)家說。

　　日蝕時雖然太陽幾乎全部被擋住了，觀看者還不能直接在沒有日蝕觀望鏡的情況下直視日蝕。直接地看太陽可能會永久地傷害你的眼睛。

　　日蝕是在月亮穿過太陽和地球之間時發(fā)生，擋住全部的太陽只留下光環(huán)或外環(huán)。日蝕的產(chǎn)生是當(dāng)太陽和月亮在天空中看起來幾乎一樣大時才可能。根據(jù)天文學(xué)家或者研究宇宙的科學(xué)家說，太陽大概是月亮的400倍大，但是也幾乎是離地球的400倍距離遠。日全蝕每一年半發(fā)生一次。上一次產(chǎn)生是在2001年6月。

　　日蝕對于非洲和澳大利亞的人來說是一次激動人心的經(jīng)歷。當(dāng)日蝕的路徑通過非洲的國家安哥拉、贊比亞、津巴布韋、南非和莫桑比克時幾千人觀看和歡呼。

　　“真是不可思議，”當(dāng)天空變暗時，南非約翰內(nèi)斯堡的切里·浩切費登說。

　　當(dāng)穿過南部非洲后，日蝕穿過印度洋到達澳大利亞，在那兒塞度納小鎮(zhèn)兩萬人已經(jīng)在等待著它的到來。塞度納是澳大利亞的僅有的兩個出現(xiàn)日全蝕的小鎮(zhèn)。

　　“那是最令人驚異的30秒。那時耀眼的白色、紫色的環(huán)，”伊凡·布雷說。他走了1000英里來看日蝕。