Invercargill,
New Zealand
General: Time 20h07m, Alt. 37 degrees, Saros 123,
26,2 % (Max 92,8 %)
A partial solar eclipse on 13th November 1993 in
New Zealand
As mentioned in an earlier edition of Heelal, several eclipses took place in November 1993. On my programme was the Mercury transit of 6th November in New Zealand, and believe it or not, one week after that event another partial solar eclipse was taking place. So I took the necessary steps to be able to observe that phenomenon as well.
Advancing further to the south, the sun would be increasingly covered by the moon with a maximum magnitude of 0.9278 at the South Pole. After my experience at Spitsbergen, close to the North Pole, where I had been to observe the partial solar eclipse on 21st May of the same year, I now had to make an attempt to reach Antarctic. The place I had in mind would have a magnitude of about 0.7.
It was too beautiful to be true, a partial solar eclipse near the North Pole in May and another one near the South Pole in November. It soon turned out I just couldn't have it all. In spite of all the trouble I took, I could not get there. So I went to the most southern position in New Zealand, at a latitude of more than 46 South, where the magnitude would amount to about 0.26.
Never before on my previous expeditions, had I carried with me so many instruments. I was packed as if I were a "mule kiwi". All the instruments had a professional origin. The Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute (KMI for those familiar with it) gave me a transportable weather station in loan. The probes for temperature (degrees C), air humidity (%), atmospheric pressure (hP) and light energy (W) are connected to a processor that can be programmed. All those measurements can be registered in time, period, and so on.
When you have a connection to a PC, you can read out and handle the results of the observations very easily. From Lichtenknecker Optics in Hasselt, I received my good old equipment consisting of a 70 mm refractor, equipped with a sun filter of the same trademark, which is assembled on a short but solid aluminium foot with a M210 assembly. Mr. J. Ruland from Interoptic had already provided me with these instruments in 1983 for my trip to Indonesia and in 1984 for the United States.
I also took the sensitive light meter with me, as I had done on my last expeditions. I can assure you that I attracted a lot of attention with my two backpacks (one on my chest and one on my back) and that I have shrunk several centimetres as a result of that heavy load.
I intended to find out to what extent an eclipse with a magnitude of 0.26 can be sensed by human beings and nature. In order to obtain comparable measurements, I carried out observations during two more days. I repeated the measurements every 5 minutes, beginning one hour before the moment of the first contact until one hour after the last contact, and this over 3 days (which means 2 days prior to the eclipse and the day of the event of course).
On each of those 3 days, the weather was unstable with clouds now and then. The most interesting part of the observation was to observe only the measurements carried out on the morning of the partial solar eclipse. You would immediately say that the eclipse is noticeable for the instruments. At the moment that the eclipse took place, and as it progressed, more clouds appeared. The low point even coincided with the maximum of the eclipse, which is a mere coincidence, but good to know. It proves that curves (and observations on the whole) must be interpreted with care.
Even if your instruments are programmed, it is essential to make notes of what your own eyes observe (degree of cloudiness, type of clouds, etc).
Due to this unstable weather, we were not able to obtain a good comparison during those 3 days, but yet it is clear that there is no significant difference between the values on the morning of the solar eclipse and those on the other two days. I truly hope that I will be able to carry out such measurements in the future, so that I can examine all the eclipses. Who is going to do this during the next partial eclipse in Belgium on 10th May?
Picture and Graph with measurements by Patrick Poitevin
Comments? Please send e-mail to solareclipsewebpages@btopenworld.com .
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