Total Solar Eclipse

On Wednesday 01 August 2008 a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor from northern Canada, Greenland, Siberia, Mongolia and China. The centre of the path will cross the northern island of Novaya Zemlya and the city of Novosibirsk. The fascinating thing about total solar eclipses is that stars and planets are much more visible.

The umbra at this eclipse is up to 240 kilometres wide and the sun is nowhere more than 33°high in the sky so a darker eclipse is expected. It is particularly fortuitous that the sky in the vicinity of Novosibirsk offers a little more than in other areas with Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Mars clearly visible and strung out like a pearl necklace east of the Sun. We are offering two options to view this eclipse. Both itineraries are subject to change.

The Train

This Russian train will operate with first class carriages only. All compartments have two lower berths and there is a shower car, two restaurant cars and a bar car serving a variety of cocktails and beverages.

Dr. Peter Cattermole

A respected expert in the field of planetary geology and volcanology, Peter brings to the role of tour leader a varied career as a schoolmaster, a forester, a mountaineering instructor, an assistant museum curator and a principal investigator with NASA’s Planetary Geology and Geophysics programme. He has also travelled widely, is a freelance author and has a keen interest in photography and good food and wine. Peter will escort Itinerary 2.