Solar Eclipse: From the Ground

Yesterday we flew along with Captain Albert Stevens as he and his pilot chased an eclipse from high in the sky to photograph it on August 31, 1932.  Today we will see how the crowd on the ground observed this rare natural phenomenon.  A Jesuit priest/scientist, Paul A. McNally, S.J., Ph.D. wrote Observing a Total Eclipse of the Sun: Dimming Solar Light for a Few Seconds Entails Years of Work for Science and Attracts Throngs to "Nature's Most Magnificent Spectacle" in the pages of the National Geographic Magazine, November, 1932.

"Late August brought groups from far corners of the world making their way toward the vantage grounds in Canada and New England, fearful, yet hopeful, that some kind of disposition of weather would bless the spot they chose, so that they might stand beneath a cloudless sky and enjoy nature's most magnificent spectacle," (p. 597).  Father McNally explains for his readers more about eclipses: "Relative to the earth, the shadow of the moon where it touches the earth is small, averaging about 80 miles in width: so that a portion of the earth from which a particular eclipse may be seen in restricted," (p. 597).  He goes on to reveal that exact calculations of the path of an eclipse is extremely difficult to determine due to the elliptical paths of the Earth around the Sun, the Moon around the Earth, and the influences of other planets on the Moon and Earth. (Let's don't forget: there were no fancy computers back then!)

News to me: the sun's 'corona,' the bright light showing behind the black sun during an eclipse, varies, depending on the kind of sun spots present.

There is much the astronomers may study about the sun, stars, and the universe during an eclipse.  They are busy "months before the general public knows that there is to be a solar eclipse, planning the experiments they will perform and setting in order the complicated instruments necessary for the observations that must be taken.  Nothing can be left to chance, the time is truly golden, and not even a fractional part is to be lost," (p. 601).  Dark glasses or devices must be worn by all who were to gaze directly at the eclipse.

When the day and time of the full eclipse came, at last, the astronomers and spectators were ready.  "While the astronomers bent diligently to their task, the thousands of spectators feasted themselves on the incomparably wondrous spectacle in the sky. Each second it seemed to take on new splendor. After some ninety seconds, the total eclipse was over, and the light of the sun returned.  Spectators proceeded home on the jammed roads; scientists started packing their equipment.  The scientific results would not be known for months.

Father McNally concludes, "after all, it was no puny task that man accomplished when he reached forth 93,000,000 miles and probed the secrets of the mighty sun during the ninety-odd seconds that marked the duration of the total solar eclipse of 1932."  I particularly enjoyed the time-lapse photography of the sun from total visibility to total eclipse.