WAITING FOR THE SHADOW SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSE OBSERVING REPORTS AND OBSERVATIONS

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Lindon Homestead Longitude = 140 53 50 Latitude = 29 07 53 Altitude : 110 metres

Eclipse Details Penumbral Duration = 01:51:00.6 Umbral Duration = 26.8s Maximum Magnitude = 1.004

Predicted Eclipse Contact Times CI @ 08:14:37.2 UT ALT= +13.1deg CII @ 09:11:24.5 UT ALT +1.5deg MID @ 09:11:37.9 UT ALT +1.5deg CIII @ 09:11 51.3 UT ALT +1.5deg CIV @ 10:05:37.7 UT ALT -8.9deg (after sunset)

I was still polar aligning my equatorial mounting during the partial phases of the eclipse. The telescope legs kept sinking into the soft hot sand changing the polar alignment. Slowly but surely the site took shape as everybody got their equipment set. Some observers jettisoned the odd experiment as they discovered problems.

My equipment consisted of an equatorial mount with 500 f4.5 and 200 f2.8 lenses each camera was loaded with Fuji NPZ 800. I used the speed of the Fuji NPZ 800 to compensate for the 8 magnitude extinction due to the low altitude of the Sun. On a fixed surveyors tripod, I attached a wooden beam with three camera bodies each fitted with 28mm lenses with overlapping fields of view covering a strip of sky 180 wide and 42 degrees wide. In the rush during totality I knew I would not have time to fire these. My hope was that after totality, they might record the retreat of the shadow if time allowed and if the shadow was small. On this beam I also mounted a motor driven Pentax LX camera with a 28mm lens with fish eye filter giving a 140 degree circular field of view. The camera had a 10 ft long cable release so I could shoot it from my position at the telescope when the shadow appeared. Another tripod held two cameras to take multi exposures. One with a 200mm lens and 35mm film and the other with an 80mm lens on 2 1/4 square film. I abandoned the 35 mm multiple exposure after 30 mins. The field would have required perfect pre-positioning. This exposure was my lowest priority project, the last to be set up and needless to say, I didn't position it perfectly. To add insult to injury I didn't hold the camera multiple exposure lever correctly during one exposure and rolled the film forward, losing my multiple shot.

Photographs : Dave Bassett shoots the eclipse, Raelene Ogilvie takes a peek, Ken Ogilvie looks through Glenn's hand filter.

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