Sam & Claire’s Total Eclipse Experience
(And
other astronomical observations)
At
Eclipse path through
At 4am we parked up in a
field and slept in the back of the car.
The ‘campsite’ in the
morning:
After breakfast and,
thanks to mum’s trusty camping gas stove, a cup of strong coffee, we drove into
Grandvilliers to buy some solar viewers. Many people
had gathered in the town square and, although cloudy, there were enough gaps
for a good view of first contact at 11:05am (local time).
As we were only armed
with an Olympus Trip Af S-2 camera we decided that
the best way to view and photograph the various stages of the eclipse was by
reflecting an image of the sun onto a sheet of paper (as seen on ‘Blue Peter’)!
The projected
reflection of the partially eclipsed sun:
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I) Approx. 11:40am (local time) |
ii) Approx. 12:00 |
|
|
|
N.B. As these are
reflections the images are upside down.
Up until midday cloud
cover was about 65% above our point so viewing was good, after all, everything
happens reasonably slowly at this point so constant viewing is not required and
certainly NOT recommended! However, just to the east of us was fairly thick
cloud cover so we were anxious as to the possibility of us missing totality
also, with 65% cover, one stray cloud and we could miss the whole show.
From midday onwards it
started to get noticeably cooler and darker. Unlike at the end of a day when
light levels gradually drop, during these last few minutes before totality the
light seemed to drop in sudden stages as if every few seconds a dimmer switch
was being turned down suddenly by a few notches.
At
Another check of the sky
and today we had good fortune on our side – not a single cloud around the area
of the sun!
12:22 (local time) and
everything starts to happen at once. By now we were in darkness, but with light
all around us on the distant horizon, something felt different – this was no
ordinary ‘night time’. Imagine being under a very thick, black and oppressive
storm cloud, in the distance the next town is still enjoying a fine summer’s
day, but where you stand something is about to happen! – That quality of light
and that same feeling we have inside of us in apprehension of a violent
summer’s storm is the closest description I can give to that of approaching
totality.
One more look through the
solar viewers and there is just the smallest fraction of the sun left
disappearing behind the moon, a gap no bigger than this bracket: ( and yet without the viewers you could still not look at
the sun with the naked eye. Then the thing I will remember the most; all along
the road where we were parked ‘shadow bands’ appeared.
These were very clear
strips of light then shade, each about 8 inches wide that scrolled along the
road at a frequency of about 130 per minute. They were horizontal to the
direction of the sun and moved towards the sun. This lasted for about 15
seconds and ended as totality started.
Diagram of ‘Shadow
Bands’:
|
Scrolling towards the
sun (Approx. 130 per minute)
|
Sun / Moon
15 seconds to totality |
|
|
ROAD |
|
Each shade / light band Approx 8" wide |
|
For the 2 minutes and few
seconds that totality lasted for I don’t have much to say. It is probably the
most beautiful and amazing thing I have ever seen. As a sign of our times,
rather than to describe totality I would suggest watching a total eclipse on
T.V. – you can probably see more than you can with the naked eye plus have an
expert commentary on what you see and what to look for. In a field in
Totality, photographed
on an
This photograph certainly
does not do justice to the true visual spectacle, the sun’s ephemeral corona
spreads out much further across the sky and below to the left we could clearly
see the planet Venus.
As the sun is approaching
one of its more active periods (approx. every 11 years) the corona, as you can
even see from our photo, was very uniform.
Below is the picture I am
most pleased with, naturally taken by Claire! If you look closely you can just
see the start of the ‘Diamond Ring’ marking the end of totality. A truly ‘one
in a million’ photo!
A ‘Diamond Ring’ &
me:
As totality ended so the
shadow bands reappeared for again a duration of about 15 seconds, then it was
all over. Light appeared to improve at a greater rate than its decline before
totality; however, this is difficult to be certain of due the excitement of the
event! Also, I cannot be certain as to whether the shadow bands were scrolling
in the same direction as they were before totality – they were certainly
identical in all other respects.
Over the next hour we
viewed the eclipse as the moon passed across the sun’s face in the opposite
direction then we spent the rest of the day shopping for wine and looking
around some of the towns of northern
Sam & Claire’s Total Lunar Eclipse Experience
Tuesday 9th
January 2001
On
Totality was reached at
19.50 and lasted for about one hour. During this time we caught glimpses of the
eclipse in between fairly thick cloud cover and playing some of the great Jazz
standards such as ‘Moon River ‘, ‘Old Devil Moon’ and ‘Moonlight in Vermont’!!
Unfortunately I don’t
have a camera capable of taking pictures of this event but here is a picture of
the moon during totality (From BBC Web site);
Sam & Claire’s Transit of Venus Experience
Tuesday 8th
June 2004
For several hours on Tuesday morning, two of the sky's
most brilliant objects appeared to meet as Venus, as viewed from Earth, passed
in front of the sun. In the so-called "transit of Venus," the black
silhouette of the planet was seen moving from left to right across the lower
portion of the sun. Venus last passed between the Earth and sun in 1882.
The transit of Venus is a rare astronomical event -
and one of historic importance. Astronomers first figured out how to measure
the distance of the Earth from the sun by timing Venus as it crossed the face
of the sun. The push to make measurements of the transit all over the world led
to the European settlement of distant lands, including
I took a photograph of the suns’ reflection on our
lounge wall (via binoculars and a mirror) using the camera on my mobile phone.
(As it is a reflection it is upside down);
The transit of Venus at 6.55am G.M.T.
Future Eclipses
Total Solar Eclipse: August 1 2008. N.America, Europe,
Total Solar Eclipse: July 22 2009.
Total Solar Eclipse:
Total Solar Eclipse:
Total Lunar Eclipse: December 21 2010. Pacific,
Some Excellent Links
www.eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html