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Should you wish to contact the
society or require general information please contact ASTRA
using the following Email address: Should you encounter any problems
with this Web
Page please
email: The public watch at Airdrie
Public Observatory was well
attended by the public, library staff (as their duties
allowed) and ASTRA members. We were very fortunate to be able to
see the full partial solar eclipse, from the 'first contact'
to the 'last contact'. First contact was recorded at 10.04
a.m., with about 85% partial eclipse by12.32 p.m., at which
time, to qoute George McCue "there was a considerable change
in temperature and lowering of the light intensity". The
partial eclipse finished at 1.17 p.m. when the moon finally
left the edge of sun. The sun's iamge was projected onto a
white card using the 6' Cooke refractor which gave us a very
clear image despite some thin cloud at times. A number of photographs were taken of
the projected image of the sun - although not as good as I
would have liked, the results are not too bad considering
these photographs were taken using a hand held SLR with an
80 - 210 zoom telephoto lens. Below are the results of these
efforts. The images above show a number of
stages of the partial eclipse, from a few minutes after
first contact (image 1) through the maximum partial eclipse
of approximately 85% (images 12/13) to the final sategs of
the eclipse showing the final contact (image22). During the last few minutes of the
partial eclipse we were interested to see groups of sunspots
which could be clearly seen (images 19, 20 and
21). During the eclipse there was an
enjoyable atmosphere and many of the people preesent clearly
enjoyed the experience. Below are a number of snapshots
taken during the partial eclipse: Above some of the members of the
public taking part in the public watch of the partial
eclipse. Above the two curators oversee the
proceedings. Danny Kane keeps the 6" Cooke 'tuned'
so that it stays on 'target' during the eclipse. Meanwhile
George McCue and Dr Greg Beekman demonstrate how
NOT
to observe the eclipse. During the partial eclipse the
original 'Reid' telescope was set up to observe the Sun's
image via projection. Image 1 shows Danny
Kane and Greg
Beekman setting up the
original 'Reid' telescope, while image 2 shows
Oscar
Schwiglhofer overseeing the
set-up of the telescope. Image 3 shows the 'Reid' telescope
setup ready to project the partial eclipse.
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