Tiran,
Iran
General: Time h m s, Alt. 41 degrees, Saros 145,
path 104 km, duration 01m47s (Max 02m22s)
Kosofe, 20 Morad 1378 (Islamic date) in Tiran,
Iran
Indeed, 11 August 1999 a total solar eclipse had been observed successfully from the small place Tiran in central Iran by Joanne Edmonds and Patrick Poitevin.
What supposed to be a 6 hour drive from the Zanjan Institute to the observation place in Boroujerd, turned out to be a shadow racing of more then 18 hours. A bus break down caused "some" delay and clouds building up at about eclipse time, made it necessary driving in land to the small place called Tiran, some 50 kilometres west of Esfahan. What supposed to be a 95 percent change of clear sky at the eclipse, Iran proved weather does not necessary follows climate. Nearly all places on the central line suffered of clouds at eclipse time.
Plan A changed into plan B when locals warned for robberies and kidnapping by smugglers near Bam in the east. So plan B, the Boroujerd mountains, changed into plan C, Navahand, because of accommodation facilities and convenience. But arriving Navahand, and continuously checking weather stations and contacts over the line, we drove during the night for a 6-hour race to the final place, some 50 kilometres west of Esfahan. A beautiful spot with a clear blue sky. No worries. Except that the police picked me and my partner Joanne Edmonds (Jo) up and brought us to the office. We stayed there a few hours and ended up with a cup of tea and the exchange for our passports for a few eclipse glasses. A few hours to go and those authorities even helped us with a protected observation place and brought us food, drinks and fruit... What else need an addicted eclipse chaser? A country full of surprises and an amazing hospitality. Suffered from the race, the tension of the passport check up, we observed a perfect blue sky. Some clouds were building up very low at the horizon in the west. They stayed low and there was no harm at all, because they moved towards north. I was quite convinced, they would dissolve when the partial phase would start and due to the temperature drop and increase of humidity. A pattern which happened a lot during previous eclipse observations. The rest of the sky was blue as can be.
The first bite in the sun was visible at 10h44m10s universal time and only 14 seconds later then the calculated first contact. Local time was 14h14m, and 3,5 hours different. During the partial phase, the sky stayed quite clear. As usual, I stuck to my sky brightness measurements, the automatic temperature logger with 4 cells, and the large white sheet for the shadow bands. Jo and me had both a Celestron 90 mm, focal length 1000 mm of which one connected with a camera body with slide film 200 ASA. A separate 28 mm lens camera was taking slides every 5 minutes from first to fourth contact. At the same spot of the horizon in the west. Further, a panoramic camera taking free hand pictures and a dictaphone for recording data, observations and animal behaviour.
The tape of the dictaphone was running 20 minutes before second contact, totality. The big ants on the white sheet did not worry about the eclipse this time. Before the partial phase, during or even at totality, they crossed over the white sheet. A donkey made his concert and a cock announced the darkness about 20 minutes before totality. A kid cried, but I am sure, it had nothing to do with the eclipse. Some dogs barked, but if that was announcing something, I doubt. Some black birds flew low over the landscape before totality. It was quite windy the whole day and so during the entire eclipse. Venus was only visible 5 to 6 minutes before totality. From then the darkness felt over us. The sky brightness dropped quickly from 18600 Lux, 6 minutes before totality to 23,4 Lux at totality. A strange feeling. The temperatures were measured in the sun (in the wind), the shade (hided), under the ground and in an instrument case, just to simulate the drop of temperature for the instruments. From first contact to the lowest data, which was 8 minutes after maximum eclipse, the drop was 7 degrees Celsius in the sun, 0.4 only in the shade, 0 under the ground and 8 degrees Celsius in the case. Of course, this drop was noticed on our bodies, mainly due to the windy circumstances we where in.
About a quarter before totality the collors of a white sheet or paper became purple, pinkie. The horizon too. It was beautiful and it was getting darker. As mentioned before, only Venus was visible. Mercury and Mars, or even other stars were not observed or not too much attention was given. About one or two minutes before totality, Jo noticed the shadow bands. They were not as usual. They appeared as dancing rings, moving from north to south over the white sheet. But only after a half-minute of this extremely rare phenomenon, the fast moving shadow bands appeared as I used to know from other eclipses. The direction was also more or less from northwest to southeast. They were very obvious and fast. What a beautiful observation. The Baily's beads and a weak diamond ring. Some huge prominences appeared immediately at the moon's black disc. A big interrupted tongue prominence at 5 o'clock and two loop prominences at 12 and at 10 o'clock. A bird just flew under the eclipsed sun.
With the naked eye, the corona was very bright and very symmetric. It reminded me to the drawing of the eclipse of Arago in 1851. Some spikes where pronounced. One at 4 to 5 o'clock and a wider at 10 to 11 o'clock. What an eclipse... The sky looks rather clear. The horizon is beautiful, red. The chromosphere pronounced and very bright and wide due to the short totality and nearly same apparent diameter of the sun and moon disc. For this location, totality would take 1 minute 47 seconds. It was quickly over, too quickly. A bright diamond appeared, the show was over. The shadow moved over the horizon and was contrastly visible on a cloud in the east at the horizon. And then: Silence. Although the religion of the country does not permit any physical contact between males and females in public, Jo and me hugged each other and where over the moon about the eclipse....
Venus remained visible for quite a few minutes after totality. For the remaining partial phase, the sunspots could be observed when then reappeared at the moon's edge. I lost the sight of Venus after 20 minutes. Soon after fourth contact we packed, ate the remaining fruit and explored the rest of the country. Thank you Jahan Miri, for the wonderful contact and help to make this eclipse the best out 25 for me. Thank you Jo for you’re continuously support in chasing eclipses, the mailing list, ..., everything. Report by Patrick Poitevin, August 23, 1999
From: Joanne Edmonds
Dear all
Although this was my fourth eclipse I am a new member to the list. Please find my report below.
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE AUGUST 11TH 1999 Tiran, IRAN (32 41 50.7 North, 51 09 23.2 East, 1958 m alt)
*ALL TIMES STATED ARE IN GMT
At 10.44 GMT time the moon took the first magical bite from the sun, and so began the last Total Solar Eclipse of the 20th century. Iran the land of culture, civilization and hospitality proved to be correct on all three points, not only were the good, historically there was plenty to see, indeed, the tomb of Xerxes who supposedly saw an eclipse on his way to invade Greece with his Persian army in 480 B.C. is situated near Shiraz. Generally the Iranian people were very friendly, kind and helpful in every respect.
Patrick Poitevin and myself were official guest of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences. We travelled with students to the proposed eclipse site of Nahavand, however, the students had been observing the weather on a daily basis. According to their observations cloud had been forming during the late morning and overcast skies prevailed in the afternoons. Decisions had to be made either we stayed and took our chances, or we moved to nearer Esfahan where the skies had been supposedly better. The decision to move was finally made by Patrick and the student team leader Mr. Mirtorabi, and we packed everything back into the mini-bus and left Nahavand to drive through the night. The road to Isfahan virtually followed the path of the eclipse. We arrived at 6.00 am and day break brought with it a wonderful clear sky. We were situated approximately 50 kilometres north- west of Isfahan and stumbled on a tiny village of Tiran.
Although some clouds had formed over the distance mountains to the south-east and the north-west, the suns path across the sky remained clear. The clouds in the North-west were heavier, and if it continued to build up it could prove a possible danger. However, after first contact the cloud actually started to dissipate, and before second contact had almost disappeared. The first five minutes were filled with the students excitement. Then they became busy with their experiments. Local people appeared as if from nowhere. At 11.04 Patrick recorded the first temperature drop. There were only two small groups of spots visible up by the moon at 11.15 am. By 11.40 am the local people had also became calmer, and the temperature drop was 5 degrees. Shadows became unclear, and at 11.43 am a Cockerel crowed in the distance. We observed that the horizon, white paper, and the shadowband sheet had a pink appearance. The colours were very different to the 1998 eclipse in the Caribbean. Patrick spotted Venus at 11.56 am, very close to the sun and on the same altitude. Four minutes to go and I started to look for shadow bands. There were none noticeable yet. 12.00 pm a donkey brays in the distance, that was the last animal observation. Surprisingly insects did not seem to be abundant in Iran.
Then there they were at 12.01, very faint at first and I wasn't to sure what I was seeing, but on the white sheet laid out in front of the telescopes were crescents, they were rotating in a circular motion. The circles seemed to be approximately 15 cm in diameter and about 2 cm apart. The observation site had been slightly windy, not uncomfortably so, it certainly wasn't the sheet blowing in the wind. The ring effect lasted for about a minute then the shadow bands that we all know and love appeared as normal, increasing in intensity until my attention was taken away by the Baily's beads and a small diamond ring.
The corona grew until it was about three times the diameter of the sun, I was paralysed, Patrick had to remind me to look through the telescope. The low angle of the sun made it look even bigger in the sky. In the inner portion of the corona, but radiating from the chromosphere I saw the colours of the rainbow, green, yellow, orange, and blue. The outer corona was fairly white but with filament detail. Through the telescope were unbelievably large loops (10.00, 7.00 and 2.00 o'clock) and a tongue prominence (5.00 o'clock). I believe and hope that slight will be etched on my memory forever. We only had 1 m 47 s of totality. Again I looked with the naked eye, and was absolutely breathless. I could still see the colours. But, as always the sands of time move on and the second larger diamond ring came into view much to fast, until the inevitable partial phase began again. We did manage to see the shadow moving away, distinct against clouds behind us. People were silent. People stood in stunned silence. Mr. Mirtorabi stood with his head in his hands. He reported later that it had been very successful in respect of the experiments the students had conducted in collaboration with European scientist.
All things considered Iran was a travelling experience I shall never forget. The difference in culture, religion, and language, but most of all I will never forget the most perfect eclipse displaying shadow bands, Baily's beads, diamond ring, large chromosphere, very large symmetrical corona, shadow moving away. Astronomy rarely shows us fireworks, but on the 11th August 1999 it made an exception. Report 25th August 1999 by Joanne Edmonds
Picture and Graph by Patrick Poitevin
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