Sorry to hear that guys!
Poltava was clouded since previous night, and only some semi-transparent gaps allowed to see the Sun for a liitle time after the mid-eclipse.
But I did my first (and successful!) eclipse chase - went 180km NW from Poltava to the town of Pyriatyn, where the sky was mostly clear. There were some transparent Altocumulus present (<15%), but they have just partially obscured the Sun during the last 10-15 minutes before C4. The weather I've experienced was even BETTER THAN AUGUST 2008!
Btw it was cold enough (colder than I expected): -12C on average, and down to -14C at maximal eclipse. I was afraid not as much for myself getting cold, but more for my camera batterries which could die during those 3 hours-long session! Hopefully, I managed to take shots in 15-minutes intervals and other time both cameras were kept inside a warm pocket (and they survived!).
The things I had a luck to observe today are:
- all stages from C1 to C4, including maximum 79.6% magnitude (both visual and photographic session were 100% successful)
- some small mountains on S & W parts of lunar limb, still nice with my equipment (76mm aperture solar-filtered at 35x)
- 1+6 sunspots and their occultations
- definite temperature drop of 2...3°C
- not very distinct fading of landscape & sky illumination
- excellent crescent shadows!
- as weather bonus: huge and very photogenic hoar frost, plenty of clear & dry snow and some iridiscence on the clouds (latter not photographed though)
An event of equal magnitude will occure in Poltava only in 2030, and the closest one (only 55%) is >4 years ahead too. Therefore, I hope to have many more events outside Poltava until those dates!
P.S. Photoreport to follow in a day or two (I'm excited but quite exhausted right now)
