by J Allen Wootton

Almost exactly ten years ago (February 26, 1979), my y wife, .
fellow Caledonia teacher John Toews, and I took a group of
students from Terrace to eastern Washington state so that we

' could view a total eclipse of the Sun. I still remember the trip
vividly... _

We flew to ‘Vancouver and then drove i in two rented: vans to
our destination — - Richland, Washington. After ‘driving through
_tain and snow, we finally arrived there at about. ‘midnight and we
all spread sleeping bags on the floor of a school classroom. We |
had few hopes of seeing | the eclipse we had travelled so far to see.
_ Early the next morning, however, the. Sky began to: -clear, and

by the time of the total phase of the eclipse, we were extremely —
privileged to see the awesome spectacle of a total solar eclipse. _
Some of the students who were on that trip and are still in Ter-
race may recognize themselves in a photo I took of this very nice
group shortly after the eclipse,:at a time when everyone was still
very excited at what they had seen. _

You.may wonder what my reminiscence has to do with upcom-
ing astronomical events for this month. As you. might have
guessed, a solar eclipse occurs this month, too. Unlike the eclipse
of ten years ago, however, this eclipse will not be total anywhere
— the region of the Moon’s complete shadow, the umbra, passes
to the north of the Earth and we will travel through only the. Par-
tial, or penumbral, shadow. —

- Another type of eclipse occurred toward the end: of February.
This was a lunar eclipse. Terrace. was not a good location from
which to view this event, however, because the Moon. was totally
eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow at about the time that the Moon
" set inthe morning. I observed the Moon when the eclipse began
but: could see little effect. Later on, clouds in the western sky
obscured the.Moon so it was difficult to decide if the Moon’s
dimming was the result of the eclipse or the clouds. Even under
the best. conditions, the Moon doesn’t go totally dark during a
lunar eclipse; light is bent by the Earth’s atmosphere so it reaches »
areas of the Moon that would otherwise be dark. Because this
light reaching the Moon passes through the Earth’s atmosphere,
any large quantities of dust-or smoke in the atmosphere (from,
~ volcanoes or forest fires, for example) can have a very noticeable

effect on the eclipse.
* You might think that eclipses are really rare events, but this is
not so. Every year there are several. In 1989, for example, there
will be two partial solar eclipses and two total lunar eclipses.
From what I have written so far; you will realize that the prob-
lem with eclipses i is that you may not be in a ‘part of the world
from which you can see the eclipse. Further, while anyone on the
. night side of the Earth can appreciate a lunar eclipse, a solar
eclipse i is most spectacular only in the path of totality — a rather
narrow band (about | 100 km wide) that streaks across the Earth’s
- surface. Right in the center of the region of totality: the eclipse
_ can last up to about seven minutes — the eclipse I saw lasted just ©
over two minutes — so even if you are well-positioned, these
beautiful events are short lived.

This month’s eclipse occurs on Tuesday, the 7th, and I am
looking forward to it very much. It will.not be as spectacular as a
total eclipse — few sights match one of thesé — yet it. will be
tather remarkable as viewed from Terrace. The maximum ~
coverage of the Sun by the Moon’s shadow (81 percent) will be
visible just off the western coast of Alaska, so we ate very. weil

- located for this event. The eclipse will begin at shortly after 9
a.m. and the greatest amount of eclipse. should occur at about
10:15 a.m, By 11:15 a.m., the eclipse will be over. _
You may know that it is extremely dangerous to view the Sun
directly, sO you may wonder how you can observe this eclipse.
-One way is to set, up an apparatus like that I have shown in the
‘photos. You need two pieces of cardboatd, a pair of binoculars
in one of the pieces of cardboard (the other lens should be block-
- ed); Tape the binoculars to the tripod, then point the binoculars
towards the Sun. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you DO
NOT LOOK THROUGH THE BINOCULARS when you do this
or you will blind your eye in’an instant. instead, use the shadow
formed by the binoculars to help you line them up and then pro-
ject the image of the ‘Sun onto the second piece. of cardboard. By
focussing the binoculars you can get a very nice image of the Sun
formed there.

If you are unsure about the projection method of Sun viewing,
or if you would like to look at the eclipse through a telescope,
you can do so if you can get to Caledonia Senior Secondary
School at some time between 9 and 11 a.m, on March 7. If the
weather co-operates, I will have a telescope equipped with a safe
solar filter set up there, and any interested people are most
welcome to join the students who will be looking through it. The
view you get should look.something like the picture of a partial
solar eclipse that I have included with this article.

‘

Jupiter and Mars will continue to be good objects for observa-
tion this month. Mars will pass about 2° north of Jupiter on
March 11-12 and these two planets, the Moon, and the Pleiades
should make a nice grouping at this time.
~ Saturn will rise about three hours before the Sun this month
-and you: will be able to see it as a moderately bright object | low in
- the southeast at sunrise. The planet Neptune will be very close to
Satiirn on the morning of March 2-3, but you will need & a
telescope to. pick out Neptune’s disc.

_ Spring begins at 7:20 © on Monday; March 20.

In 1978 this group of Caledonia Senior Secondary: School students took atrip-to the state of
Washington to get a better view of that year’s total eclipse of the sun. :

Finally, the Terrace Astronomical Society regular monthly

“meeting will bé held'on March 21 at the Terrace Public Library.

The meeting. begins at 7:30 p.m. and anyone interested i in.

_ astronomy is very welcome. Weekly observing sessions are held at

the library on clear Tuesdays from 8 p.m. to about 9:30 p.m.

"and, like’ the: Astronomical Sociéty meetings, these observing ses-

sions are open to anyone interested in astronomy. .

Binoculars mounted on a
tripod will project an Image
of the eclipse on cardboard
for safe viewing — but don't
look through the binoculars.
; 6 intensity of the sun will
This is what the sun looks like during a partial eclipse, :
when the moon moves between it and the earth. . camage your tha

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The projection of the sun during aclipse onto a cardboard
screen is a safe way to observe the event.

i,