Observations during Total Eclipse
Bryan Dort (bdort@freeway.net)
Thu, 15 Jan 1998 13:52:58 -0500
Hey everyone,
Just curious: Any possibility of observations during a total eclipse of
the sun? (as if there wasn't enough to observe at night! ;-) )
I see that the next one will occur over Central Pacific and Atlantic on
February 26. I'm not planning on making the trip. Just a posing this
theoretical question. Since the eclispse would have to be total to be dark
enough
According to CNN (edited):
Areas that will experience total eclipse of the sun February 26:
Galapagos Islands, in the Pacific Ocean west of Ecuador. Northern
Venezuela. Northern Colombia. Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao,
Bonaire, Montserrat, Antigua and Guadeloupe. Areas of partial eclipse in
the United States: Southern Florida, 40-50 percent. A strip running
northeast from southern Texas, across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, 20-30 percent. North
of that line, lesser or no eclipse. The moment of maximum partial eclipse,
12:27 p.m. in Houston, 12:41 p.m. in New Orleans, 1:01 p.m. in Miami, all
times local.
The path of the umbra, the 93-mile-wide track where the moon precisely
shadows the body of the sun, starts in the South Pacific. As the Earth
spins, the shadow will race eastward and cross the Galapagos Islands west
of Ecuador, clip northern Venezuela and Colombia and streak on to straddle
a string of Caribbean Islands: Aruba, Curacao, Guadeloupe and Antigua. The
path of the total eclipse ends off Africa's Atlantic coast.
In the United States, only a partial eclipse will be seen. Viewing will be
best from southern Florida, where about half of the solar sphere will be
blocked by the moon.
The Williams College group will coordinate its work with observations taken
by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, a sun-science
spacecraft. SOHO, which orbits between the moon and sun, does not see the
eclipse, but its solar data taken at the same time will be compared with
results gathered on the ground.
For the February 26 eclipse, researchers can board airline flights directly
to the site, easily hauling along their equipment, then stay in luxury
hotels while awaiting the main event. That, Habbal says, doesn't happen
often.
But it will occur again in August 1999, when the path of a total eclipse
crosses the heart of Europe.
People in the continental United States will not view a total solar eclipse
before August 2017.
Thanks,
Bryan Dort - bdort@agh.org
--
Bryan Dort - bdort@agh.org
Programmer Analyst
Alpena General Hospital - http://www.agh.org
Alpena, MI USA 45.0524N 83.4575W 200m