September DAS Focus

COMPUTERS IN ASTRONOMY by Don Shedrick

I was very fortunate to have gone with my wife on the Scientific Expeditions and Sky and Telescope Solar Eclipse Safari to Southern Africa this past June. This well planned trip featured not only what proved to be a very fine total solar eclipse in Zambia, but a spectacular itinerary of Southern Africa including a wild game safari in Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls, and a rail trip on a luxurious vintage steam train to Cape Town, South Africa.

The eclipse day weather at our observing site 40 km north of Lusaka, Zambia was perfectly clear without even a threat of a cloud. As totality approached, birds could be heard rushing back to their nests, shadow bands were observed, and the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees F. The diamond ring effect was unusually long lasting, and the corona streamers during totality were evenly extended to a distance of two solar diameters from the suns limb. I have posted a small sampling of my photos of the eclipse on the following web site:

http://groups.msn.com/firstlightimaging

This site also includes my photos of the rest of our trip including safari wildlife, Victoria Falls, Rovos Rail train ride, and Cape Town.

There were many organized tours planned around this solar eclipse, most of which also included safaris at one of the many game reserves in the southern portion of Africa, as well as other sights such as Victoria Falls. Many participants in these tours have posted trip reports and photos on the web. I have listed below some of these that I have found to be particularly good and worth your time surfing.

Fred Espenak is a well know eclipse expert, and his web site for the 2001 total solar eclipse has been established for the purpose of providing detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this historic event. It is at:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE2001/TSE2001.html

He has his report on the eclipse from his observing site a Chisamba, Zambia at:

http://www.mreclipse.com/TSE01reports/TSE01Espenak.html

Sky & Telescope Magazine's report on the solar eclipse they co-sponsored is at:

http://www.skypub.com/sights/eclipses/solar/010621africa.html

Bill Kramer observed the eclipse from Landless Corners, Zambia, 70 miles north of Lusaka. He has an excellent site with many eclipse photos as well as photos of animals during Zambezi River Valley safaris, Victoria Falls, and other sights, and links to other eclipse photo sites.

http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/e01/ecl2001.htm

A.L.P.O. Solar Section has images by Aadil Desai Secretary, Amateur Astronomers' Association, Bombay, India that he photographed from his observing location at the Lusaka International Airport. This was the site the local government established as the focal point for many eclipse day festivities. The local Zambian government declared eclipse day a national holiday as thousands of tourists poured in for the event.

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/eclstuff/010621.html

Vic & Jen Winter have a large selection of photos of the eclipse, wildlife, scenics, and native people from the less traveled viewing location of Madagascar.

http://www.icstars.com/Mad/

Ken and Betty Wilson of the Science Museum of Virginia have images of their eclipse trip to Africa presented as a slide show at:
http://www.smv.org/ethyl/eclipseslides/index.htm

See a GIF image animation of the eclipse by Kevin Smith & Richard Robinson at the VIDEOASTRO web site of the Video Astrophotography E-mail Discussion Group & Resource site:

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/canterbury/222/astrovid.htm

Bob Stephens & Alson Wong have a must see site at:

http://www.foxandstephens.com/africa/2001AfricaEclipse01.htm

Be sure to step through all the links at the bottom of their page. This is an excellent site with complete travel log of their trip to Chisamba, Zambia to view the eclipse, photos of the eclipse, Victoria Falls, exciting animal shots from their safari in the Okavango Delta area in Botswanna, and stunning wide angle and prime focus pictures of southern sky objects by Alson. Alson Wong's photos of the sky are always outstanding, and these are no exception. His composite of the solar corona during totality comes close to capturing on film what the eye actually sees.

Daniel Fischer who led a group of 14 German amateur astronomers to Kafue National Park, Zambia, and other parks along the Zambezi River, has a good assortment of photos of the eclipse, wildlife (be sure to see the elephants), Victoria Falls (including from an airplane), native people, and night sky photos including comet Linear, which was at its finest during the time of the eclipse trip.

http://www.geocities.com/skyreports/zam2001/

Mirko Nitschke, also on the same trip, has two notable photo galleries with unusually high quality images. Aerial photos of Victoria Falls at:

http://members.tripod.de/mirko_nitschke/sambia/sofi02.htm

and wildlife shots at:

http://members.tripod.de/mirko_nitschke/sambia/sofi07.htm

John Walker, creator of HomePlanet and Your Sky software featured previously in this column, has a nice collection of eclipse photos from Pioneer Camp in Zambia, Victoria Falls, and wildlife safari photos from the Okavango Delta area in Botswanna.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/eclipse_2001/

Bob Yen has many eclipse photos from his viewing location at Kabompo, Zambia and photos of Chobe National Park wildlife, landscape, and native people, and a QuickTime video at:

http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl01/secl01.html

Dr. Wolfgang Strickling's eclipse report from Muzarabani, Zimbabwe is unique in that it is the only site that I have seen successfully photograph the shadow bands, which were widely reported during this eclipse. He also has a discussion of shadow band theory and charts showing temperature and wind observations.

http://home.t-online.de/home/Dr.Strickling/2k1_engl.htm

Thierry Legault has interesting animations and photos from his observations in Sumbe, Angola at:

http://perso.club-internet.fr/legault/eclipse.html

Greg Babcock has a very nice animation of Second & Third Contacts using 38 images taken from his observing site at Chisamba, Zambia, and interesting close ups of prominences, as well as photos of wildlife from Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls.

http://www.synrgistic.com/eclipse2001/home2001.htm

Val and Andrew White have a varied assortment of eclipse photos from Chisamba, Zambia, as well as observations, temperature data, a satellite picture of southern Africa with approaching shadow, and shots of the southern night sky.

http://www.vanda.demon.co.uk/travel/africa2001/africa2001.htm

Mel Bartels, who observed from Chisamba, Zambia, has a web site at:

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~mbartels/eclipse01/se01-se.html

His eclipse photos are not exceptional, but he does have interesting photos of Victoria Falls and Wildlife from Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.

The EUMETSAT (European Meteorological Satellite) used its in-orbit stand-by satellite Meteosat-6 to observe the shadow of the Moon over southern Africa using a special high frequency scanning mode. Instead of covering the full Earth disk in half-hourly intervals, a large part of the southern hemisphere was scanned in 10-minute intervals. Images of the Moon's shadow along the Earth's surface for a selected time or an animated sequence can be viewed at the EUMETSAT site by clicking on the Solar Eclipse link:

http://www.eumetsat.de/

Another image by the NOAA METEOSAT can be viewed at:

 http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Unique/Eclipse/UNIecl172_MT.jpg

 In looking back on this incredible trip, one of things most prominent in my memory besides the obvious spectacular sights, is the great warmth and friendliness of the native people of Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are poor beyond our comprehension in material goods, but were very rich in their sincere desire to make us feel truly welcome in their land. It is a feeling I will never forget.

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