Public Lectures for the Session 2000-2001 held in Room E7 of the Renold Building, UMIST.
Delivered to the Manchester Astronomical Society

19th October 2000

'Total Solar Eclipses - A Retrospective'

Dr Eric Jones
Proudman Oceanographic Laboratories, Birkenhead, Merseyside.

As a former president of Liverpool Astronomical Society and veteran of a dozen solar eclipse expeditions, Dr Jones was admirably qualified to recount the many eclipses witnessed by LAS observers since their founding in 1881. Their first president, Fr. Stephen J Perry, had been involved in many government-organised eclipse expeditions in the latter part of the 19th century and had died on such a trip, to Cayenne, in 1889.

The total eclipse of 1927 had passed across Liverpool and had been successfully observed by many LAS members. In illustration of the way in which observing techniques had changed, Dr Jones showed slides of the great, long focal length lenses used then to capture the fleeting moments of totality, a rare thing and witnessed by very few astronomers, amateur and professional alike, until cheap foreign holidays in the early 1970s made eclipse chasing more readily affordable. Nowadays, 35mm cameras and portable telescopes made eclipse photography much easier.

Dr Jones' first total eclipse was that of July 1973 when he and several LAS members, along with 300 other astronomers, sailed to Mauritania aboard the 'Monte Umbe'. Since then, he and a handful of other LAS members, including Dr Eric Strach, had seen most of the solar eclipses of the past three decades, travelling widely across the globe. Inclement weather had spoiled very few opportunities.

For several years, the LAS had been making very accurate eclipse timings that had lead to a better understanding of the geometry involved. This research was coming to fruition with the recent publication of a mathematical method to determine the precise duration of eclipses that may ultimately show variations in the mean solar diameter.

Whilst eclipse observers can still undertake useful scientific work, the sheer spectacle of a totally eclipsed sun is an awesome sight and well worth seeing. However, even now, travelling to remote parts of the globe can still be hazardous and at a recent eclipse in Mongolia one member of the party had died after being poisoned by food locally prepared to celebrate the eclipse. Eclipses were, however, a marvellous way of meeting people of different cultures and sharing with them this most remarkable phenomenon.

Synopsis by Kevin J. Kilburn (Secretary)

Maintained by Michael Oates
Page modified 28 October, 2006