T he last total solar eclipse of the 20-th century begins in the North Atlantic about 300km south of Nova Scotia where the eclipse will be, unfortunately, invisible.

No major landfall occurs for the first forty minutes as the shadow sweeps across the North Atlantic. The umbra finally reach the Isles of Scilly of the southwestern coast of England at 10:10 UT. One minute later, the Moon's umbra arrives along the shores of the Cornwall Peninsula. By 10:16 UT, the umbra leaves England as it traverses the English Channel and goes to Europe. The southern edge of the umbra first reaches Normandy at 10:16 UT. As the shadow sweeps through the French countryside , its southern edge passes 30km north of Paris (where the eclipse will be invisible).

Continuing on its eastward track, the path's northern limit crosses into southern Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. At 10:33 UT the entire umbra crosses into southern Germany where Stuttgart and Munchen lie near path center. At 10:41 UT, the umbra leaves Germany and crosses into Austria where it encounters the Eastern Alps. The southern edge of the path grazes northeastern Slovenia as the shadow enters Hungary at 10:47 UT, where lake Balaton lies wholly within the path. As the shadow leaves Hungary, the southern third briefly sweeps through northern Yugoslavia and enters into Romania.

The instant of greatest eclipse in August 11, 1999, occurs at 11:03:04 UT and will be recorded among the rolling hills of south-central Romania, very near Ramnicu Valcea. The lenght of totality (the period of apparent night) will be 2m23s and the path width of the eclipse (the umbra's strip on the Earth, where the eclipse's visibility is total) will be 112km. The umbra's velocity will be 0.68km/s. Four minutes later, at 11:07 UT, the capital of Romania, Bucharest, will be engulfed by the shadow. Since Bucharest will lie on the center line near the instant of greatest eclipse, it will enjoy a 2m22s duration of total eclipse. The 2.5 million people capital of Romania will enjoy, in three astronomical observatories, both public assistance and scientifical projects. Camps for amateur astronomers and public in the gorgeous mountain regions as Retezat National Park or Apuseni are planned and guided by astronomical clubs, Romanian astronomers and touring companies...

T raveling south-southeast, the path encompasses the Romania-Bulgaria border before leaving land and heading out across Black Sea. The next landfall occurs along the Black Sea coast of northern Turkey at 11:21 UT. The umbra reaches Turkey's southeastern border at 11:45 UT and briefly enters north-western Syria as it crosses into Iraq and Iran western boundary (11:52 UT). At 12:22 UT, the shadow enters Pakistan and skirts the shores of the Arabian Sea. The umbra arrives in India, the last nation in the path, at 12:28 UT. At 12:36:23 UT, the umbra races back into space, not to return until the next millennium...

A scientifical journal on the 1999 eclipse is "Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11" by Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson (NASA Reference Publication 1398), where this note was compiled. Additional exhaustive materials containing graphs, explanations and tables of visibility, can be found at the folowing NASA address.