kidseclipse presents Eclipse99!

Williams College Expedition to Romania

     "Complete and total success" reported Prof. Jay Pasachoff of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, of his team's observations of the total eclipse, August 11. "From our site in Rimnicu Vilcea, Romania,

Image of corona taken from Rimnicu Vilcea, Romania by the Williams College Eclipse Expedition

we viewed the two and a half minutes of totality in a completely clear sky. We have already played back data from our hard drives, and we can see that we have fabulous scientific data. It should keep my students and me busy for years.

     "We had a dozen Williams students as well as some faculty and staff on site in Romania for two weeks. They set up and aligned some ton and a half of equipment. It all paid off with magnificent results.

     "We are studying the outer part of the sun, the corona," reported Pasachoff. The corona expands to envelop the Earth, so by studying it we are studying our environment in space. This year and the next two are especially active times for sunspots and other tracers of the sun's magnetic field, so the corona was not only especially interesting but also especially beautiful this time. Bright streamers bristled from the Sun in all directions and red prominences gleamed out at the Sun's edge.

     "Our experiments were meant to study how the corona gets so hot, how its temperature changes from point to point, and

Williams College corona image combined with SOHO EIT image taken concurrently

how the magnetic field shapes it. The National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and NASA, which funded the bulk of our expedition, should be very happy with us."

     We have twelve Williams College students, exchange students, and recent alumni with us. Bryce Babcock and Stephan Martin of Williams College, Lee Hawkins of Wellesley College and Appalachian State University, Jonathan Kern of Caltech, Allan Ridgeley of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England, Marek Demianski of the University of Warsaw, and Paul Rosenthal of Williamstown comprise our staff."

     Dr. Ridgeley reports that his colleagues in Cornwall, though they observed the eclipse through clouds, were able to record the infrared spectrum of the corona.

     Two members of the Williams College team were stationed at the Bucharest Observatory to try to make high-resolution observations of the corona with a 6-m focal length telescope. Unfortunately, a cloud covered the sun just at the wrong moment, and totality was obscured from this particular Bucharest site, though the eclipse was visible from various locations in Bucharest.

     From solar-eclipse.org, we see one of the first views of the eclipse as it passed over England!

     As the eclipse made its way across the continents, solar-eclipse.org provided excellent views (when you could get through - the servers were very busy!).

     Once again, we commend their site as the premier live webcam location on the Internet for the Total Solar Eclipse.

     For those with Real Player, visit the NASA archives for a wonderful video of totality and the reaction by the passengers on the ship. Also available is a rather large quicktime movie of totality worth viewing, but prepare for a long download.

Richard Horwitz was also aboard a Black Sea cruise ship and provides a beautiful image of the Diamond Ring. He reported that the view was spectacular with no clouds.

     Unfortunately, our correspondent, David Harte, was clouded out right at totality in Reims, France. We will be adding new links to experiment results and any highlights we find. Please continue to come back as our site grows from the last eclipse of the millennium.