10jul01 13:10
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, (1685-1750) : Chacone from Partita No.2 in D- for Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1004. On the modern violin it is impossible to play this piece as Bach intended because the string layout is different. This midi file 'recreates' the original sound.
John Blakely's Home page - currently devoted to Total Solar Eclipse '99.
I took both these shots with a 400mm lens at f/8 on 35mm Kodak Gold 100. Left 1/30 sec; right 1/1000 sec.
Above left is a rendition of my naked eye view (created using Paint Shop Pro). Don't know who that eejit on the right is!
This was serious stuff! 1.5 hr bus journey from our resort of Albena, Bulgaria, on the Black sea coast to the middle of totality in a speck on the map which has a name: Kamenbrajag. Infact longest duration (2'23'') at our longitude by fractions of a second was a couple of kilometers further north but some clever bugger worked out that best Baileys beads would be here. We (i.e. 70+ IAA members plus Bulgarian amatuers and lots of Russian profesional astronomers with big tubes and mirrors) set up in dissused school grounds. The coast was about a kilometer away. I walked there to see many tents and great hoards. The landscape reminiscent of the limestone stepps of County Clare, with slightly more vegitation. Nude bathers bedecked the rocks at the bottom of 100 foot cliffs. The whole scene was a bit eary, I imagine like the outskirts of some Glastonbury festival. I toyed with the idea of moving my gear to the coast in the hope of seeing a shadow receed across the sea but decided against.
The sky was totally clear with only slight haze. First contact was scary. As it grew it became obvious even to the most uneducated eye that this thing was going to be TOTAL! If you got wet feet and suddenly decided that you had indeed got a rather rare morbid fear of total eclipses you would definately be in deep shit! The partial phases went through a rather interesting cycle:
First touch > Packman > Big Smiley face > Crescent sliver > Bright dot
It was nice to watch some sun spots at about 5 o'clock and r/2 dissappear.
Even from first contact strange things seemed to happen. A cock started to crow in the distance. And as God turned his big celestial dimmer switch birds started to fly home to roost. The light turned an eary grey. Odd to see the sky clear with a sun in it (for without filters the fact that the sun wasn't round was barely noticable, even some minutes from 2nd contact) yet the ambient light so dull. We did all the usual stuff like check out crescent shaped shadows through leaves on sheets of white paper, someone measured a 16deg drop in temp.
When totality came it was a shock. The accoustic stuff added to my internal confusion. The crowds at the coast let out a consorted Ooooh! followed by a cheer. Some lunatic (sic) in a powered paraglider took off. There was a loud boom - a Russian supersonic aircraft we reckoned later. Someone had said 'expect it to go very dark'. But when I looked up the sky didn't seem dark enough. Like about an hour after sunset, the horizon deep orange. 'This can't be it!' I thought. Yet what used to be the sun had turned into a black disc with a vivid red/pink/orange ring around it. No photograph I have seen portrays the sight that met my eyes. The corona I hardly noticed, all I could concentrate on was the ring of chromosphere and the promenances. I had fortunately remembered to remove the ND filter from my camera about a minute before totality so I ran off a couple of shots at 1/1000, f11 (400mm). Then I removed the filters from my 8x25's and looked. The colour was indescribable. Every photo I have seen makes it look almost monochrome, but in reality it was so colourfull - and the contrast! - the moon blacker than black. A very bright promenance at 7 o'clock made me think I had burnt my retina - I removed the glasses to double check - my most vivid recollection is my naked eye view - black hole surrounded by a red ring. I ran off a few more shots at various shutter speeds then someone shouted '15 seconds'. The diamond ring was amazing. It only lasted a couple of seconds but astounded us all. There was another cheer then spontaneous applause as the spectacle came to an end. I reckon I got 4th contact later than anyone else!
The rest is history. And almost a week later, a country who's flag contains a partial eclipse as it's emblem and just around the coast suffered a severe earthquake.
Sorry if all that waxes a little lyrical but boy was it good!
PROFILE
I am a 43 year old frustrated Astronomer, qualified Physicist and practising real time Software Engineer working in Belfast, Northern Ireland. My seven year old son Peter wants to be an Architect and my darlin' little Emma just gets lovelier every day. I have a penchant for gazing through my telescope, Astrophotography, all types of good Music, the rock group Gentle Giant, wine, holidays in Greece, Golf, Science Fiction, HiFi, bits of Eastern Philosophy and Chess. I hate violence, bigotry, dogma, politicians, 'dulse' and 'yellow man' (for the unwary, dulse is 'eatable' dried seaweed, yellow man is a rock-hard, sweet honeycomb). When I grow up I want to be a millionaire.
10 Great Films (That's movies in American English)
2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)
Walkabout (1971)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Casablanca (1942)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Titanic (1997)
The Apartment (1960)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Walkabout (1971)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Casablanca (1942)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Titanic (1997)
The Apartment (1960)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Casablanca (1942)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Titanic (1997)
The Apartment (1960)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Titanic (1997)
The Apartment (1960)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Titanic (1997)
The Apartment (1960)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
It is my intention to use these pages to pass on stuff which I have found useful in those subject areas which interest me. In the interim, till I get my thoughts in order, I have given some of the more interesting URL's I have visited recently, in no particular order. I hope you find something of interest.
Worth a visit...(Some of these links defunct by now)
Project Galileo (JPL)
/B>The Swingle Singers home page
The Phone Book
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
This site offers scans of original manuscripts by J.S.Bach.
Architectural Antiquities
Surreal Art (I used to love this sort of stuff!)
Frazier on UK Channel 4
Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'
James Dawe's Avengers Home Page
A different Astronomy picture and explanation every day
Belfast Telegraph
BBC Radio 3
Ally McBeal on UK Channel 4
Koyaanisqatsi
J.S. Bach midi sites
Some Sting stuff
The STScI Digitized Sky Survey
Gentle Giant Home Page
The Electronic Telegraph
The Astronomer Magazine
Welcome to Babbages Guide to the World Wide Web
UK Weather
Mike Boschat's Astronomy Page
NASA home page
Space Telescope Electronic Information Service
Yearling Personalised Television Listings
Belfast Entertainment
Direct Net @ccess
Tom Fine's Internet Answers Collection
WebMuseum: Bienvenue! (Welcome from the curator)
Procyon Systems Astronomy Page
ASTRONOMY Magazine
Lost in Space Page
NASA Information by Subject
InterNIC Directory and Database Services Home Page
Discovery Channel Online
Robert Lentz's Astro Resources
Northern Ireland Information Centre
Belfast Weather
Guide to NASA Online Resources
Earth Viewer
URouLette
Stars and Galaxies
Microsoft Software Library Search
SKY Online - Home Page
GolfLinks
Microsoft
Expo Ticket Office
Internic home page
Space Movie Archive
Comet SL9 home page
languages
World servers
Show me the Way!
Internet Movie Database. Search Forms
A.A.O. Home Page
The Science Museum London.
University of Iowa Automated Telescope Facility
WebMuseum: Degas, Edgar
Bill's World of Art
HiFi pages #245089
Note that some URLs may be out of date!
An extract from the CfDS Home Page :- http://www.u-net.com/ph/cfds/
What is Light Pollution?No, it isn't the opposite of heavy pollution !
People have enjoyed looking at the night sky, one of the most beautiful parts of ourenvironment, for thousands of years. Everyone should be able to see stars and planets,our Milky Way galaxy and shooting stars (meteors); but over the last forty years,millions of lights have blotted out the night sky for people living in towns, and evenin the countryside road lights and security lights can cause problems for anyone who wants to see the stars.
Astronomers call the wasted light that goes up into the sky "Light Pollution".
Should we put all the lights out ?
Of course not. We need light at night for many reasons. The astronomers would like to see BETTER lights which shine downwards where the light is needed and not upwards where it isn't.
Good lights are not too bright, and do not blot out the sky; they save energy and give usback something like the dark skies that people enjoyed long ago.
The light from the rest of the Universe takes hundreds, thousands or millions of years to reach our eyes. What a pity to loose it on the last moment of its journey!
This satellite image, taken at midnight, shows just how much light is being wasted overthe British Isles.
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E-mail: jpb@norniron.com
Cool is boring. I prefer emotion. Just don't loose the plot!