Day 1: From Constantine, to Algiers, to O'Hare Intl. Airport, Chicago |
Departure to the trip from Houari Boumedienne International Airport at Algiers. A group picture with some of the parents.
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What is the best way to go to Chicago from Algeria with a tight budget? A surprising answer is to go to the Middle East and then fly North towards the North pole and then down through Canada. Here flying over the Dubai skyscrapers. |
A lengthy 27 hours journey... |
View of rugged mountain range from above Iraq. |
Tbilissi, the capital of Georgia |
Reaching Greenland |
Crossing Lake Michigan, and reaching Chicago |
Flying over Chicago suburb before landing. |
Landing at O'Hare international airport. The three laureates. |
Welcomed at the airport by more members of the team: Smail Beyoud at left, a past Sirius president, Chamseddine Mouatsi (Past Sirius Vice President, in white shirt) and Khaled Achahboune who both came by land from Canada. |
Day 2: Visit to the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry |
The huge Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Here an aerial view of it. |
Its many wings contain so many exhibits that it can't be visited in one day.. |
Generating tornados for pedagogical purposes. |
A nice collection of genuine historical spacecrafts at the Henry Crown Space Center. Here our High School members of the team in front of the Apollo 8 spacecraft which went past the Moon in an lunar orbit, preparing for the Apollo 11 landing mission...
The authentic Mercury spacecraft with which Scott Carpenter conducted three Earth orbits in 1962, after the historical flight of John Glenn in June 1961 using a similar capsule and .by which the USA entered the space age.
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Electrical "magic" in front of your very eyes. |
Visualizing one's veins and finding the direction of the blood flux.
The Foucault pendulum, a great (In fact the unique) way to prove the Earth's rotation.
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Unleashing the great power of induced electricity. |
The famous Thomson's experiment measuring the electron's electric charge. |
 A display of aircrafts with the United Airlines Boeing 727 dominating the scene. |
The British Spitfire fighter, perhaps the best fighter aircraft of WW2 easily matched in performance the German Messerschmitt 109. It is also the only Spitfire on museum display anywhere in the World which saw actual use. It retains its RAF paintings including its five cetified kills (Yellow stars). |
The Wright brothers machine. Notice the pilot's position. |
The evolution of the rockets. The later ones are really big! |
What's this strange space beast? Actual, no cow has ever been in space, and it is just a piece of art. |
Another view at Mercury MA7 (Aurora 7) capsule. |
The German Stuka diver bomber used in WW2 with great success. |
Playing with a spacecraft simulator
The power of meditation: Aymen versus Yasser. Aymen Sahli, the young maverick member of the team, was a previous recipient of Cirta-Science contest. He came this time as a self supporting member of Sirius. |
Dream of space |
In front of a body display of a special kind.
A space creature with human features
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Younes and Chamseddine in front of the U505, a real captured German submarine. |
The U505 German submarine |
Smail and Abderahmane. Behind them is Amine and at right Soumaya. |
Younes and Khaled |
Day 3: Due South towards Carbondale, Il
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Reaching Carbondale one day before the eclipse, we had ample time to visit the SIU campus and the place where next day we will be watching the eclipse. |
A beautiful campus with a pre-eclipse Sun, about to have its last setting before D-Day. |
Touring Campus Lake situated right in the middle of the University. |
The big Astronomy, Science and Technology Expo one of the many activities of the Eclipse festival going on with many stands and sellers and two inflatable planetariums. It is estimated that some 90.000 came to Carbondale to observe the eclipse. |
The WTHI-TV channel from Terre Haute, Kevin Orpurt interviewing the Algerian team in the early morning of the eclipse. This interview of the group can be seen live here (A whopping 6mn; check from 18mn to 24mn). It was rebroadcasted by other TV stations affiliates including CBS. The Annahar TV from Algeria did also a TV segment on the Sirius team trip just before the totality.
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The eclipse's path.Carbondale our observing station was situates at few miles from the point of greatest duration. |
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Day 4: Watching the Eclipse from the Saluki Stadium, Carbondale |
Most of the Sirius team at the Saluki stadium. Missing are R.M. taking the picture and the group of the Sirius photographic team on the other side of the stadium, in addition to Basma from the Jordanian Astronomical Society. |
Joining the crowd walking to the Saluki stadium |
Can you interpret what is written? |
The Sirius team divided itself in two groups: the photographic team above with Chamseddine the head of it and his assistants Smail and Khaled. The other team was the "spectator" team which joined the people in the stadium... |
The three Cirta-Science9 laureates mingling with the locals.
Yasser and Younes |
The Algerian row in position early in the day. |
Atmospheric balloons launched at the start of the partial phase to monitor the weather condition. |
The start of the eclipse. |
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Playing with shadows with a partially eclipsed Sun. |
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A well equipped watcher... |
Using more basic technology... |
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As time went on, the stadium filled up to full capacity. |
Our valiant photographers away from the brouhaha kept taking timed pictures. Great team work. |
Chamsou making fine adjustments. |
The NASA stand broadcasting live with various panels of specialists.
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Getting close to totality. Weird lighting conditions. The Sun's ardor was no more there. A noticeable cooling could be perceived. |
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Few seconds before totality. The whole stadium entered into an excited mode. |
People becoming emotional. Scenes of jubilation. |
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Day dimming to night. Notice a circular sunset effect characteristic of total eclipses |
Two minutes and 40 seconds of totality falls upon the area.
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Threatening clouds were hovering and all were wary of whether they will spoil the instants of totality. Around 1:20 p.m. darkness started wrapping up the stadium, the Sun's disk was nowhere to be seen for 2mn 40s although the corona was lost in the clouds. Suddenly the clouds thinned, the diamond ring appeared followed by a burst of light.
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We could easily see during totality Jupiter and Sirius. |
Diamond ring effect. |
On the side of the photographic team, the darkness has fallen upon them as well. |
Back to daylight. |
The Sun is back. |
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Younes joining the Star War characters present at the stadium... |
Most of the big TV channels were there at Carbondale covering live the event. |
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With Howard Motyl, head of the department of Radio, TV and digital media at the South Illinois University. At right is Basma Diab, the General Secretary of the Jordanian Astronomical Society embedded in the Sirius team. |
Meeting at last with Pamela Gay from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), a well known astrophysicist and educator with whom we coordinated the event and who helped us a lot in securing our presence at Carbondale. Here handing her a gift of appreciation in the name of the group. |
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Last display of the flag just outside the stadium where our photographic team were located. The thirteenth member, R.M., is taking the picture. |
And here is the whole sequence... |
Powerful picture of the extended corona by our friend Philippe Morel, president of AstroClub de France, from Jackson Hole, Wy. It was taken with a 500mm lens and consists 80 stacked images. See in his next picture the intricacies of a solar spot. |
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Day 5: Epic Return : Congested roads and heavy thunderstorm activity |
Le Retour
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Ainsi l'équipe de treize personnes dont un Marocain et une Jordanienne dans deux voitures fonçant Nord dans la direction de Chicago fut confrontée à une situation passablement chaotique avec embouteillages monstres sur toutes les voies principales de circulation. En effet, des dizaines de milliers d'automobilistes avaient quitté la zone de totalité quasiment simultanément et retournaient aux aussi vers les grands centres urbains de Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee... Nous nous résolûmes à emprunter des voies secondaires, exploitant au mieux le GPS, puis une fois suffisamment avancé, nous nous rabattions à nouveau sur les grands axes routiers mais pour se retrouver à chaque fois hélas nez à nez avec des bouchons constitués d' automobilistes qui avaient quitté la zone de totalité plus tôt encore. La paralysie du trafic était aggravée par le fait que des portions de route étaient en travaux, limitant la circulation à une voie sur de larges segments. Nous repartions de plus belle sur les routes secondaires, parfois des routes de campagne à voie unique, mais dont la faible circulation nous permettait de circuler à grande vitesse, jouant les plus malins que les autres...
Au Pays ou les Gens vous Saluent d'un Bonjour de la Main
Nos incursions dans l'hinterland Américain nous fîmes découvrir cet arrière pays ou les gens vous saluent spontanément d'un grand bonjour de la main. En effet cette autre Amérique rurale souriante était assez inattendue et nous rappellait le Bled ou les locaux accueillent l'étranger avec amples salutations et sourires. Mais les nuages devinrent de plus en plus menaçants tandis que le vent soufflait de plus en plus fort, pour que le tout se transforme assez vite en une véritable tempête avec des trombes d'eau impressionnantes et une visibilité limitée à quelques mètres. Nous poursuivîmes notre route et rejoignîmes finalement l'autoroute principale pour tomber à nouveau sur une circulation intense, mais bien plus au Nord. Ainsi la route du retour prit douze heures au lieu des cinq heures à l'aller, et nous arrivâmes à notre Hôtel à 5h30 du matin. A éclipse exceptionnelle, retour prodige.
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