. . . . . . . . . . .Welcome to the 9^th Asian Physics Olympiad! (APhO9) Welcome to Mongolia! 20 - 28 April, 2008

Mongols are almost the only nation still keeping their nomadic traditions and lifestyle. Moreover, as nomads the astronomic knowledge was transferred down from generations with ability to determine quite precisely the year, month, day and timing by celestial locations of the Sun and Moon, other planets, stars and their constellations. On par with other Asian nations, the astronomy has been developing since ancient times as a science for Mongols with deep worship of the blue sky and eternal heavens. Also, Mongolia become a first among Asian nations to send its astronaut for outer space exploration as well as one of the countries to create a measurement instrument and conduct a space test of the Solar light polarization. Thus, Mongols are proud with many achievements in its astronomy and outer space research. There are many more folk tales and stories connected with explanations of astronomic phenomena. Therefore, in commemorating this auspicious specific tradition of Mongols, we have created the “O” sign, as first letter of the word “OLYMPIAD”, from the photo of the most interesting natural phenomena called “Diamond Ring”, taken by Mongolian astrophysics researchers during a total Solar eclipse occurred on 29th March 2006. 

On Friday, 2008 August 01, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in Canada and extends across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes northeastern North America, most of Europe and Asia.