2019 ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE IN INDIA RESULTS
by Paul D. Maley, NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society
The goddess Natesa, a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the cosmic ecstatic dancer. Debbie Moran photo.
This was the 49th Ring of Fire Expeditions solar eclipse team effort to observe a remarkable and beautiful occurrence as the Moon aligned itself between the Earth and the Sun over the Indian subcontinent. But this was not the only unique aspect of this trip. Lynn and I completed a full around the world travel from Phoenix to San Francisco to Delhi and then back to San Francisco and Phoenix on United Airlines.
Path of the eclipse. Courtesy X. Jubier.
Circumstances at our site. Courtesy X. Jubier.
PRE-ECLIPSE: THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
The first success was flying over northern Canada where I was able to set up a window photography platform to shoot the Northern Lights from two locations. This was accomplished while crossing latitude 65 as seen in the next image.
A screen shot showing the location along the flight path where the first aurora activity was seen.
The following two photos are 12 second exposures and are representative of numerous bright images recorded. It was part of a roughly 30 minute unexpected episode as auroras just popped up as I was ready to take a short nap. Needlessly to say I was up for several hours after that.
Aurora with the constellation of Aries in the upper light and Pegasus in the center.
The second Northern Lights opportunity occurred after flying over the top of Greenland and then approaching Svalbard. During two prior trips to Svalbard I had photographed the Lights on both occasions. Aries and Pegasus are more clearly visible in the above image.
Screen shot of the flight path as we traveled at very high latitudes. Greenland is to the left and the group of islands on the right is Svalbard, Norway, the site of our successful total solar eclipse expedition in 2015. On the return trip to the US our route was at low latitudes so aurora were not visible.
Much weaker aurora was seen on this 2nd opportunity. Notice constellations of Auriga in upper left, Aries to the right, Taurus and the Pleiades below. P. Maley photo.
To make this happen I used a window mount designed by Jeff Pohlman as shown below. A black cloth was Velcroed to the side wall in seat 1A facing northwest, then north. A menu was used as a manual shutter.
Aurora photo platform. Lynn Palmer photo.
THE RING ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
This was an annular or ring eclipse where the Moon does not completely cover the Sun. Everyone knew what was to be expected and it is at times like this when we can avoid the typical crowds seen at total solar eclipses. However, this solar eclipse was not without its tense moments. Perhaps the most critical was travel from our hotel in Coimbatore to the eclipse path which almost failed completely. First, the weather was initially forecasted to be quite poor. Extensive cloud appeared over our site areas every day. The eclipse was to occur centrally at 0927am local time (GMT+5.5 hours) the day after Christmas. I had selected a number of potential site locations in advance based on our ground travel capability but had to rework everything on eclipse day.
Cloud cover graphic which represents the period 830am-1130am as the prediction was relatively unchanged. Red indicates the percent of cloudiness. The cross marks our hotel location. This prediction indicated that the best chance of clear (blue) sky was to the west. This graphic is one of many weather sources and I had to wait to see which ones agreed. But the ultimate site selection was made by me in real time.
My plan was to depart the hotel at 615am and make the anticipated 1.5 hour trip to a site near Mannarakad in time to arrive before first contact at 809am. However, at 615am the driver was on his cell phone and inexplicably the bus was not moving. We had onboard a local contact Professor Edwin Rajarthnam, a French teacher from Coimbatore. He explained that to travel to this ‘new’ site we needed to cross into Kerala state from our Tamil Nadu state location and the bus driver did not have enough money to pay the anticipated $187/13,000INR in tolls. Time ticked by! The main office of our travel host finally transferred money to the driver’s bank account and by 635am we were off to the nearest ATM to collect the toll money. The drama did not end there; we stopped at 3 different ATMs to get the required toll money; one ATM was not working. The driver’s debit card failed at the other ATMs due to a cut in the card. After the 3rd failed attempt I asked tour members if they had enough rupees to cover the cash needed. We were fortunately able to collect the right amount of money on the bus in real time and handed it to the driver who used it to pay the tolls. This crisis was now over. As we traveled along, solid cloud cover appeared all the way on the route as we crossed into Kerala at the town of Palakkad (southern limit of the eclipse path). We moved northward in an attempt to beat the clouds and haze.
After passing Palakkad, I could see clouds evaporating to our north and east. I evaluated this situation in real time and finally chose a spot beside the two-lane road leading to the town of Mannarakad. It was an inconvenient, populated, noisy and heavily traveled road site but the only one we could pick in real time due to too much time having been wasted trying to get toll money. Anyone traveling down it in either direction could see our parked bus and cameras set up to see the eclipse. The site was just outside of the cloud area and I could tell it might be the perfect location from the weather standpoint. The relative location is shown below. We had to forego the full 3 minutes of annularity at the center line in favor of this location as travel to the center was virtually impossible due to clouds, lack of roads, and time. Our site allowed for 1 minute 27 seconds of annularity. Here the antumbral depth was 7.1km (only 12% of the way from the edge to the center line) and the 1/2 path width was 57km; this put us fairly close to the southern edge. The term antumbral depth is a measure of the amount of eclipse based on 0 being at the edge and 1.0 being at the center regardless if it is a total eclipse. It can also be expressed in kilometers from the edge to the center and also as a percentage of the distance from the edge to center.
The two red lines identify the north limit (upper right) and southern limit of the eclipse path with the blue line being the predicted center. Courtesy X. Jubier.
Final site location: 10 deg 49m 13.86s North, 76 deg 35m 57.90s East; elevation 280 ft next to a mosque called Juma Masjid. Here 1 minute 27 seconds of annularity was predicted.
A completely clear sky at the site with no clouds from beginning to end. P. Maley photo.
Partial phase image. Bob Hammarberg photo. Again, no sunspots were visible this year.
Baily’s Beads can almost be seen in the above image in the upper left corner. Bob Hammarberg photo. Taken with Nikon Coolpix P900 camera, ISO1400, f/5.6 at 1/30 sec. 196mm fl.
Central annularity. The reason the Moon is not an exact “bull’s eye” is that our site was off center from the middle of the eclipse path. Bob Hammarberg photo.
These two images were taken by Jan Hellemans using a Canon 7D II , Canon 100-400mm zoom with EFL 640mm , ISO 400 , F6.3 and 1/800 sec. In all of these photos on the page, it is very difficult to see any Baily’s Beads due to the quick nature of the contacts and the flat features at the north pole of the Moon that creates them.
2nd contact. Paul D. Maley photo with 1250mm lens, f/10, 1/160 sec at ISO400 using an Ioptron mount and Thousand Oaks solar filter.
Central annularity. Paul D. Maley photo.
3rd contact. Paul D. Maley photo.
The above 3 photos show a frame by frame 2nd contact set of images showing evidence of the small Baily’s Beads coming from the flat North Pole of the Moon. P. Maley photos.
Composite images before 2nd contact, annularity and after 3rd contact. Chris Faser photos. Canon 7D Mark II, 400mm lens,F 5.6 ISO 400 1/2000.
Onlookers at our site were given eclipse glasses by Debbie Moran and Chris Faser. Debbie Moran photo.
Elaine Williams (UK) and eclipse scope. P. Maley photo.
Debbie Moran shooting the eclipse. Audrey Konow photo.
Crescent Sun images at the entrance to the mosque. Lynn Palmer photo.
Multi-tasking: The imam of the mosque watching the partial phases while using his cell phone. Debbie Moran photo.
Paul Maley using the “synch function” to adjust the Sun in the telephoto. The mount was tracking but not precisely due to the difficulty in aligning the cube to the South. Audrey Konow photo.
Some of our team and interested onlookers behind. Left to right Bob Hammarberg (yellow shirt), Dee Holisky, Elaine Williams, Audrey Konow (green shirt), Jeff Burrell (in the hat next to the tree), Mia Lindholm (white shirt), Paul Maley (foreground) and Jan Hellemans (checked shirt and vest). Lynn Palmer photo.
Jan Hellemans (Belgium) observing. P. Maley photo.
A view of the overall site showing the busy road to the right, our bus and the group set up with the bus as a partial traffic block. The mosque is the light colored building in the background. P. Maley photo.
Chris Faser with her scope. Driver and helper in the background watching the partial phases.
The mosque in the background. Lynn Palmer photo.
The eclipse team at one of the ATMs where we unsuccessfully attempted to get money to pay road tolls. Left to right: Paul Maley, Bob Hammarberg, Mia Lindholm (back), Debbie Moran, Audrey Konow, Elaine Williams, Chris Faser, Jan Hellemans (back), Dee Holisky, Jeff Burrell (back), Lynn Palmer. Photo by E. Rajarathnam.
After the eclipse we made the return journey. Not far past the site we saw the first sign of cloud and the Sun was blocked all the way back to Coimbatore! We were very lucky. We did not see the Sun until the next day on our return to the airport for the trip home.
AROUND THE WORLD
On December 7, 2019 United Airlines launched non-stop San Francisco to Delhi service. This was not announced or intended to be an around the world flight but rather going east to Delhi and then west on the return. However, due to upper atmosphere winds, it has been more fuel efficient to make it an around the world trek. Roughly 15.5 hours in each of the two segments. However, due to wind patterns over the Pacific Ocean the aircraft did not fly far enough north to give an opportunity to try to see the Northern Lights again.
Outbound flight path on United Airlines flight UA104 San Francisco to Delhi
The return track from Delhi to San Francisco United Airlines flight UA105. Lynn Palmer photos.
MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS
Probably the scariest experience was the 7 hour road trip from Mysore to Coimbatore where we encountered no less than 27 hairpin turns at high elevation in fog and rain on a 2 lane road. P. Maley photo.
Along the way from Mysore to Coimbatore a bus load of patients with eye injuries appeared. It was a reminder that watching an eclipse without proper protection can lead to major eye injuries. P. Maley photo. The local hotel name is sort of ironic.
The haunted woods at the Theosophical Society. Audrey Konow photo.
News coverage December 27. P. Maley photo.
Pelican dive bombs the water at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary outside of Mysore. Debbie Moran photo.
Indian Prime Minister Modi watches the eclipse with sun glasses while holding eclipse glasses.
We stood out as popular selfie subjects: Audrey Konow and Elaine Williams. Debbie Moran photo.
Politics can enter into an eclipse. Here a politician wants to use the eclipse as an excuse not to cut water rates in her district.
Opportunistic bull . Debbie Moran photo.
My original plan was to observe the eclipse from Coimbatore but that morning it was obvious that would be impossible.
Mysore Palace’s end of the year lighting turns on Christmas eve. Debbie Moran photo.
An eclipse practice documented on December 27 where disabled kids are buried up to their necks during annularity! In addition a group called TPDK held a breakfast during the eclipse in attempt to dispell 3 local eclipse myths: people should not venture outside during an eclipse, pregnant women should not witness an eclipse and one should not consume food until the eclipse is over.It was also reported that 150 sanitation workers went on strike for 3 hours during the eclipse as 2 of their colleagues were reported abused by a family in the Coimbatore area while they were carrying out their duties.
Although we saw signs warning of elephants, leopards and tigers, this was the only evidence of a tiger that we saw. P. Maley photo.
The Flower Show at night on the grounds of Mysore Palace: helicopter and fighter jet with Bangalore Palace at back right. Debbie Moran photo.
Indian space program depiction in flowers. Debbie Moran photo.
Young women along the route. Lynn Palmer photo.
Feeding time for baby goats. Debbie Moran photo.
7th century Ratha temples near Chennai. Audrey Konow photo.
Krishna’s Butterball at Mahabalipuram (or one ill-founded sneeze could crush everyone below). Lynn Palmer photo.
No, the above photo is not a robbery in progress but a toll taker wearing a mask due to the air pollution. Delhi had two hazardous air quality alerts while we were in the country but this was on the way to the eclipse site. P. Maley photo.
A sampling of some of the amazing food choices. Lynn Palmer photos.
The end of our eclipse trip featuring happy locals. Audrey Konow photo.