中国准备迎接本世纪最长的日食

成千上万的中国，印度和日本民众将于周三亲眼见证本世纪最长的一次日食现象。旅游者和科学家们纷纷赶往最佳观测点准备迎接这次大戏然的奇观。

China gears up for longest solar eclipse of the century

Hundreds of millions of people across China, India and Japan will witness the longest solar eclipse（日食） of the century on Wednesday.

Tourists and scientists are flocking to （涌向）the best viewing spots from across the globe for up to six minutes and 39 seconds of darkness. Scientists also hope to use the eclipse to gather crucial data.

But the phenomenon is also bringing uncertainty and fear in parts of Asia, where some believe it will bring bad luck. China's cabinet, the state council, has ordered officials to dispel superstition（迷信） by explaining the science behind the phenomenon.

Others have a more prosaic concern: bad weather threatens to mar the view for many in India and China.

The total eclipse will appear at dawn in India's Gulf of Khambhat – north of Mumbai – moving east across India, Nepal（尼泊尔）, Burma（缅甸）, Bangladesh（孟加拉国） and Bhutan（不丹）.

Its path across China will take in cities including Shanghai and pass across southern Japanese islands, with a last brief view from Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati（基里巴斯）.

Many more people across the region will witness a partial eclipse（日偏食）.

"We'll have to wait a few hundred years for another opportunity to observe a solar eclipse that lasts this long, so it's a very special opportunity," Shao Zhenyi, an astronomer at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, told the Associated Press.

Scientists hope it will provide data to explain solar flares and other structures of the sun and why they erupt（喷发）, said Alphonse C Sterling, a Nasa astrophysicist （天体物理学家）who will be watching from China.

Suzhou, a popular city in Jiangsu province, China, is preparing to receive 10,000 overseas tourists and 100,000 domestic visitors, local media reported.

In India hundreds of scientists are gathering at Taregana, a village in Bihar（比哈尔）, because they believe it is the ideal spot for observation.

And hotels on the small southern Japanese island of Yakushima are booked out as people arrive for a two-day festival to celebrate the country's first total eclipse since 1963.

But in many countries eclipses have traditionally been seen as bad omens.

An an astrologer（占星家） in Burma has predicted the event will trigger wars, instability （不稳定）and natural disasters, while in India some families are advising pregnant women to stay indoors in curtained rooms lest the sun's invisible rays harm the foetus（胎儿）. and, more prosaically（平凡地）, told police to prepare for potential problems such as road accidents.

China National Radio said it had received calls from people in Wenchuan county, Sichuan, the epicentre （震源）of last year's devastating earthquake, asking if the solar eclipse would cause another tremor（微震）.

In China, the state council warned that reduced visibility and falling temperatures might create panic. It urged scientists to use the media to explain the science behind the phenomenon Internet users posted comments warning it was a "very bad omen" and that criminals might take advantage of the darkness, but others urged them to be more rational.

Keke View：日食是月球运动到太阳和地球中间，如果三者正好处在一条直线时，月球就会挡住太阳射向地球的光，月球身后的黑影正好落到地球上，这时发生日食现象。在地球上月影里的人们开始看到阳光逐渐减弱，太阳面被圆的黑影遮住，天色转暗，全部遮住时，天空中可以看到最亮的恒星和行星，几分钟后，从月球黑影边缘逐渐露出阳光，开始生光、复圆。由于月球比地球小，只有在月影中的人们才能看到日食。