On 2003 May 31 a very special solar eclipse took place. Because of a certain
geometrical constellation, the shadow of the moon fell across the north pole
and therefore run across the surface of the earth from the east to the west.
In central Europe this eclipse was a highly partial one. In Greenland, Iceland
and Scotland however, an annular eclipse could be observed.
This was the reason why the members of the astronomy club at Mainz Bernd Abstein,
Alexander Gabel, Alfons Gabel and Jörg Schuster, as well as Hans-Joachim
Bode from IOTA/ES made a journey from May 29th to June 1st 2003 to Scotland.
The first and last day of the expedition were mainly used to get to Scotland
and back to Germany. On the evening of May 29th, we could already witness an
extraordinary astronomical event, a severe geomagnetic storm, class G4, broad
a bright auroral display even to the twilight flooded skies above Scotland.
On May 30th we drove from our lodging in Dundee along the scottish west coast
and through the western fringes of the Highlands into the annularity zone. In
the evening we split up into two groups. One would stay at the outer edge of
the annularity zone in Lossiemouth, to observe the Baily's Beads phenomenon.
Jörg Schuster and myself however drove further north to get a maximum duration
of the annularity phase.
At about 01 UTC we reached Duncansby Head, the point at the northeastern edge
of Scotland. Here we were greeted by gale-force winds and and horrible seafog
with a visibility of less than 50 meters.
The decision to go back south, where we expected slower winds and less fog,
was very easy.
Finally at about 03 UTC, 15min prior to sunrise, we reached Brora, where we
setup our observation tools on a golf course near the beach.
Together with some local observers and amateur astronomers from England and
France, we waited for the rise of the partially eclipsed sun.
However, a last fogbank obscured the views and so we could just observe the
brightening of dawn. But as we watch, the brightening stoped, and it got darker
again. The time until 2nd contact and the start of annularity passed by very
quick, but the sun was not seen.
Suddenly, only seconds before end of annularity, the "Ring of Fire"
broke through the last fogbank. What a sight! Seconds later, the moon started
to retreat from the solar disc and we observed a phantastic rise of the "Crescent
of Fire above the North Sea".
The rest of the day was mainly journey back to Dundee through the scottish Highlands.
On our way we met the "Baily's Beads team" again. They did not have
as much luck as we had, because they saw the sun only 2 minutes after annularity
rising from a last front of clouds.
Technical Details:
a.) aurora
Camera: Canon EOS 50E
Main optics: 16mm f/2.8 lens
Film: Fuji Provia 400F slide film
Location: Dundee (56°28'32.3''N, 2°58'7.8''W)
b.) solar eclipse
Camera: Canon EOS 50E
Main optics: 500mm Maksutov plus 2x teleconverter
Focal length: 1000mm
Focal ratio: 11.2
Film: Fuji Provia 100F slide film
Location: Brora (57°59'48''N, 3°50'46.8''W)
Dates of the eclipse:
Sunrise: 03:28:32 UTC, magnitude of the eclipse: 0.666
2nd contact: 03:45:13 UTC
3rd contact: 03:46:42 UTC
4th contact: 04:43:27 UTC
Duration of annularity: 1:29min
magnitude of maximum eclipse: 0.938
The following pictures document the main purpose of the expedition, the annular solar eclipse. As an additional highlight a picture of the aurora borealis is shown, which surprised us on our first day in Scotland.
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