I try to present a very short report on the observations made by the Romanian astronomers.
Not every people could enjoy of these eclipse, but for the majority it was very, very exciting. We had at our Observatory the visit of many personalities, as prof.Emil Constantinescu, the president of Romania, or Mr.Goldin, the general manager of NASA.
We hope to organize an international meeting in Romania for all have observed
this eclipse, from England to Bengal. Because the year 2000 is the year of the
IAU General Assembly, we think that March 2001 would be OK (it will be a few
month before an other eclipse, the eclipse of June 2001.
Best regards,
Magda Stavinschi
OBSERVATIONS PERFORMED AT THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF AUGUST 11, 1999
Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest Observatory
Weather: partially covered sky during the whole eclipse.
Advisor for all experiments: Zadig Mouradian (Observatoire de Paris).
SOLAR DEPARTMENT
Instruments: - Solar refractor 130/1950 mm + Zeiss solar camera 180/800 mm
plan-film Kodak 4415, 13/18cm;
2 photos for inner corona (< 0.12 solar radii);
exposure times: 1/4 and 1/25 sec.
Operators: Georgeta Maris, Elena Moise, Cornel Dimitriu
Solar refractor 80/1200mm + Lyot Ohman H alpha filter + Pentax MZ-50 photo
camera (solar images of 11 mm diameter)
film Kodak technical pan 2415;
chromospheric images every 5 minutes during the whole eclipse (when clouds permitted);
exposure times: 1/2; 1/4; 1/8; 1/15 sec.
Operators: Catalin Matei, Georgeta Maris, Ribana Dimitriu, Cornel Dimitriu
- Zeiss camera 63/270 mm + Wratten gelatine filter No. 29;
- plan-film Kodak 4415, 6 x 9 cm;
- one photo for outer corona (> 3 solar radii)
- exposure time: 120 sec.
Operator: Alina Donea, Cornel Dimitriu
MERIDIAN CIRCLE
Instrument: Gauthier-Prin meridian circle, 190/2350 mm, impersonal
micrometer, 2 declination circles divided every 5'.
During the Sun's transit at the meridian, one has recorded the contacts of the solar edge in the positions alpha 1, delta 1,2, and alpha 2.
Operators: Petre Popescu, Mihaela Liculescu
DANJON ASTROLABE
Instrument: Danjon astrolabe, 100/3500 mm CCD camera COHU 4710, 512 x 512
px (acquisition speed: 500 ms)
Interference filters Grubb Parsons (narrow band type 2 red; peak wavelength:
6578 A; peak transmission: 44%; bandwidth: 16 A; side bands: 20.1%)
During the eclipse we have observed a solar prominence with an interferential
filter, at the Astrolabe Danjon. On my knowledge, it is the first time a such
instrument was used for a solar prominence observation. The team was composed
by: Radu Popescu, Cristiana Dumitrache, Petre Popescu. Our observations started
at the UT 11:12, four minutes after the 3-rd contact, and last 75 seconds. We
have taken almost 100 images.
See more details and an image at:
http://roastro.astro.ro/~crisd/danjon.html
Cristiana Dumitrache
Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy
email: crisd@roastro.astro.ro
A prominence was observed. One will search for: fine structure, internal dynamics, oscillations.
Operators: Cristiana Dumitrache, Radu Popescu
SOLAR RADIOMETER
Instrument: X band receiver on 11.5 GHz (1 GHz noise bandwidth and 40 K noise temperature) coupled to a 2 m diameter parabolic antenna (2 square meters effective surface and approx. 1.2 deg. lobe at 3 dB)
- analogical recording with 1 s time constant;
- digital recording with 10 ms time constant.
One obtained the full eclipse curve (more than three hours) in the X band including the occultation curves of the individual active regions (in immersion and emmersion), needed for obtaining the angular dimensions and the effective electronic temperatures of these ones.
In the 10 ms resolution recordings, one will search for the specific signature of the diffraction franges, in order to identify the radio structures of the solar atmosphere with dimensions of order 1 arcsec in the X band.
STELLAR TELESCOPE
Instruments: - Cassegrain reflector 500/7500 mm
photographic camera
The experiment was intended to the study of processes in the low corona.
W 47A filter: 2 exposures: 60 s, 20 s;
W 92 filter: 2 exposures: 3 s, 1 s.
Operators: Gheorghe Dorin Chis, Marian Doru Suran, Nedelia Popescu
guide reflector
CCD camera
filter for 5303 A Fe XIV line, width 5 A, T = 40%
The experiment was intended to the hydrodynamic study of the coronal plasma. The majority of the CCD images were compromised because of the unfavourable weather.
Operator: Stefan Sorescu
guide refractor
Program: Eclipse live on Internet. Projected images of the eclipse were transmitted every 7 seconds. Although the Internet link was interrupted 1 hour before the emission, the number of accesses was very high (15 000 all along the eclipse).
PHOTOGRAPHIC ASTROGRAPH
Instrument: Refractor 380/6000 mm
Observation of white light corona in three-color photographic photometry.
Exposure time: 1 - 3 - 10 - 30 s
Operator: Gheorghe Bocsa
ETX TELESCOPE
Instrument: Maksutov-type reflector 90/1250 mm
K line interference filter, width 51 A, T = 30%
Kodak 2415 film
Exposure time: 120 s
Coronal image in Ca II K line for the detection of cool regions.
Operator: Cristian Omat
TOPOGRAPHIC NETWORK
A number of 9 operators observed along the totality band in Romania for the determination of contact times.
Coordinator: George Morcov
A set of six identical Meade telescopes, operated by youngsters, observed the total eclipse from six different sites lying in Romanian territory.
OBSERVATIONS FROM TIMISOARA AND CLUJ OBSERVATORIES:
TIMISOARA GROUP
During the intervals of clear sky, there were made photographic observations, as well as video and CCD recordings.
Coordinator: Lucian Burs
CLUJ GROUP
The Cluj group performed observations at Brezoaiele, near Ramnicu Valcea.
There were obtained:
- photographic observations of various phases of the eclipse, including totality;
- CCD observations with cameras mounted on an AT-1 refractor and on an Orion
refractor.
Operators: Vlad Turcu, Alexandru Pop, Adrian Cristea, Dan Moldovan.
For the eclipse observation programmes, the Romanian astronomers cooperated with French, American, Czech, and Ukrainian colleagues.
The participants in the 24th International School for Young Astronomers and in the NATO Advanced Study Institute "Advances in Solar Research at Eclipses, from Ground and from Space", as well as the group of prof.Jay Passachoff, the president of the IAU WG "Eclipses" performed various photographic and video observations.
A group of students and professors from the University of Cluj tried to determine if the antique sanctuary of Sarmizegetusa could be used to eclipse prediction.
A number of professional and amateur astronomers performed eclipse observations in various sites, as for instance: Retezat Mountains, Ramnicu Valcea, Bucharest, Urziceni, Eforie, Mangalia, etc.
Dr.Magda Stavinschi
Director of the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy
President of the National Romanian Astronomical Committee
Str.Cutitul de Argint 5, Bucharest RO-75212, Romania
tel: +401 335 68 92, +401 335 80 10
tel/fax: +401 337 33 89
E-mail: magda@roastro.astro.ro