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Diamond Ring Photo Courtesy
The Exploratorium - San
Francisco, CA
Zambian Eclipse 2001
Heidi and I just came back from Africa, from our first
successful complete Totality! It was truly thrilling. I took
our friend Alan Adler's advice seriously and did not take the telescope
-- we watched the Eclipse with our binoculars and experienced it with
our body. But, I could not help but snap a few photos of the totality
in the African setting with my faithful Olympus Digital camera. The
bright "star" to the lower left is Jupiter:
During the partiality, our friends let me take photos
through their scopes. I was after the sunspots! These images are
taken through Brian Day's ETX:
And after the Eclipse and our game reserve expedition
were over, Mike Reynolds of Chabot Science Center, Oakland, CA.,
suggested that we go to see the Tswaing-Sautpan Meteor Crater near
Pretoria, South Africa. At the very end of our trip, we made a brief
excursion to this spectacular site/sight:
Just to show you that we were really in Africa, please note the visitor
who could even eclipse our Party:
Now you see our Eclipse was totally Perfect!
Isaac Kikawada
Mountain View, CA
HeidiandIsaac@windandtree.com
Another Solar Eclipse - June 21, 2001
It’s time again for another Total Solar Eclipse!
This time I will fly to Lusaka in Zambia, South Africa, hopefully to witness and record a 3 1/2 minute event. It will occur on June 21st, the day of the Summer Solstice for Northern Hemisphere folks, but the Winter Solstice for those in the Southern Hemisphere, where I will be located. Of interest is the fact that this will be the first Total Solar Eclipse of the new 21st century and of the new 3rd Millennium A.D.
I plan to include the use of a new Canon GL1, 3-CCD, camcorder mounted piggyback to my Solar Telescope. I hope to capture this eclipse on digital video and produce another TV show for the Cupertino Senior TV Production group known as “The Better Part.” For the record, this will be my 22nd venture into the moon’s shadow.
Ernie Piini
San Jose, CA
EWPIINI@AOL.COM
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AAAA Members
Observe 2001 Eclipse
A Partial View from Brazil
Here goes a photo from the June 21 partial solar eclipse here in
Araraquara, Brazil. I took it yesterday when I spent all night long in the “Clube Náutico”, observing and taking pictures of the sky and the comet Linear C/2001 A2. It was the coldest night of the year here! But it was worth it to endure the cold!!!
To get the comet, I used the hypered black and white film that I bought in the TSP, but I am having problems to find someone who works with this kind of film here. When I get it processed, I will send you the best pictures.
Now I will start to work on the Binocular Messier List to get another pin from John.
Leo Andriao
Araraquara, Brazil
leo.iris@uol.com.br
Totally Perfect in Zambia
It was our first "whole" totality. We were in Germany
two years ago, since Heidi's home town in Switzerland was near the
totality path. But, it rained in the morning and cloudy all the
rest, though we've got to see the crescent Sun off and on and we did feel
the totality very dramatically. So, we were hooked.
This one in Zambia was perfect. We could observe in luxury from a
swanky resort. Since our kind friend, Brian Day, let me use his ETX during
partiality, Heidi and I took only our bino's
:
Please note the multiple use bino holder! Yes, my sponge mop
cleans windows, too! But most of the time it was my walking stick,
sometimes a rod to ward off a naughty girl! I also put a screw top
on it for mounting my digital camera for shooting animals. It even
became a clothes-drying beam after we were drenched at Victoria Falls!
This has been the best $4.50 investment we made so far, at the
recommendation of our dear friend Alan Adler ... I now cannot leave
home without it!
I did not realize Heidi's T-shirt was multi-purpose, at least
dual-purpose, too!
I could project the crescent sun in front, while the back is
advertising for our Club's (Peninsula Astronomical Society) annual
Yosemite Glacier Point Star Party!
Isaac Kikawada
Mountain View, CA
HeidiandIsaac@windandtree.com
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