Solar System on the Web
Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton
The Nine Planets
Space Library: Solar System Simulations
An annotated reading and resource list, compiled by Andy Fraknoi, is available for beginners who want to learn more about our solar system is now part of the educational web pages of the non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
The resource listing can be found at:
www.aspsky.org/education/solarsys.html
The listing discusses some of the most
useful books and articles for teachers and
students on:
* the solar system in general, * each planet, * asteroids and comets, * impacts, and * the search for life on other local worlds.
There are also brief lists of useful web sites and places to get slides and posters of solar system images.
This list is part of the work of Project ASTRO, a national program to train professional and amateur astronomers to "adopt" 4th - 9th grade classrooms in partnership with a local teacher in their communities. The project is currently operating in 11 regional sites from Boston to San Francisco.
Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible at sunset in Seattle, which will see about 30% coverage on July 30, which corresponds to July 31 UT. The percent coverage is about the same in Anchorage, but the sun sets later there so the eclipse will be easier to see, http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/PSE2000Jul.gif
Fred Espenak of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has animated some of his lunar eclipse photos from 20-21 January 2000. To see them, go towards the bottom of his main web page at:
http://www.MrEclipse.com/MrEclipse.html
There you will see a tiny animated GIF of the lunar eclipse.
If you click on it, you will get a much larger (220 kB) animated GIF (which takes longer to download).
See the flash movie at http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/solar-index.html and the references to their back articles that follow.
We are pleased to announce the launching of the first installment of a prototype education/public outreach product, "Thursday's Classroom," produced by the NASA/Marshall Science Directorate.
The first installment deals with solar eclipses, and future episodes of this prototype will introduce other solar science topics, specifically, sunspots, the sun-earth connection, solar observing, and the solar cycle.
Our aim is to provide a lasting connection between NASA's latest research and the classroom environment. We welcome your feedback and invite you to explore our product at http://thursdaysclassroom.com
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Newton (NASA/Marshall)
Jim Miller (Univ. of AL in Huntsville)
Scientists and tourists are getting excited about the August 11, 1999, total solar eclipse. It will begin in the Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts, hit land at Lands End, England, and cross Europe to Romania, where will be at its peak. Then it will cross eastern Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. By the time it reaches India, which will be in the monsoon, the weather forecasts are not as good as they are earlier on the path.
Links
Williams College Expedition
IAU Working Group on
Eclipses
Espenak NASA site
LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee plans to live-broadcast this century's last annular eclipse on Tuesday, February 16 via the Internet. The organization's video crew will be transmitting the live image from Mullewa, West Australia. Mr. Bevan Harris, president of The Astronomical Society of Western Australia (ASWA) supported the organization in terms of observation site coordination.
The details of the event are as follows:
Feb. 16 Program Outline
- - Live Time (UT):
Start at 6:00 and close at 8:30 or earlier, on February 16, 1999
- - Live Contents:
The program will be providing the realtime video of the circular sun gradually eclipses to become a thin ring which at last returns to the former shape. The LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee will be arranging 2 stream types -- 20kbps video-only stream, enabling a low-bandwidth line to let viewers enjoy the program, and 45kbps stream with video and sound, conveying the real atmosphere of the observation site.
This time's eclipse will show a very thin ring with the maximum eclipse ratio being 98%. So we can expect to see the beautiful Bailey's Beads, the sunlight leaking out from the rough surface of the moon which looks like a pearl-beads necklace. The annularity will start around 7:30 (UT) and will pearl-beads necklace. The annularity will start around 7:30 (UT) and will last for only 47 seconds.
- - URL
http://www.solar-eclipse.org/index.html
- - System Requirements:
RealPlayer 5 or RealPlayer G2 needed for video, 56kbps modem or ISDN TA for video and audio.
- - Image Of The Prominences
We plan to upload on the website the image of the eclipsing sun and the prominences within 30 minutes after the live. The prominences will be videotaped using a special filter. An annular eclipse enhances the contrast of prominence against the bright sunlight by covering the sun, and makes it easier for us to observe and videotape the prominences. Please note, however, that whether we will be able to capture clear prominence images may depend of the condition of the sun.
Significant Step Toward The European Total Eclipse In August
On August 11, we expect this century's last total eclipse covering unusually wide area from Europe to West Asia. The LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee positions the Feb. 16 undertaking as the technical testing, eyeing the August live program of the European total eclipse, of Internet live which can handle highly-concentrated, one-time access through burden distribution.
The preparation for the August live has already been on the way by the LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee. What we are planning is to send out the eclipse image from as many places as possible. We, therefore, are looking forward to a global-scale support either from organizations or individuals, in fields of observation, technology, equipments, funds, translations and others. Please contact webmaster@solar-eclipse.org for inquiries.
Profile Of LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee
The LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee is a non-profit organization formed by amateur astronomers, astronomical observatories, SOHO workers, network engineer, students majoring in technology, as well as individuals. It is supported by many corporations. The organization is headed by Masami Okyudo, a director of Misato Observatory who has accumulated expertise in the promotion of astronomy utilizing the Internet.
Starting from the March 1997 Mongolia/Siberia total eclipse Internet live, the LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee carried out live programs of 3 consecutive total/annular eclipses. As the world's top leader of eclipse Internet live webcasts, our unique programs, fully utilizing the cutting-edge Internet technologies, have achieved many accesses from an average of 100 nations all over the world.
Press Inquiries
Y. Honobe, Public Relations, LIVE!ECLIPSE Executive Committee Bpress@solar-eclipse.org
- -------------------------------------------------
Junichi Watanabe, Dr.
Public Information Office
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / STAR WEEK in Japan /
Osawa, Mitaka, 181-8588 Tokyo Japan / /
/ 1999 /
e-mail:jun.watanabe@nao.ac.jp / Aug.1-7 /
FAX: +81-422-34-3810
Phone:+81-422-34-3638
Fred Espenak of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has maps and discussions of the total solar eclipse, the annular solar eclipse, and the lunar eclipses of 1999.
See the location, look, and phase of any of 32 planets and moons on any date, as simulated at JPL. The site includes texture maps of various planets and moons.
http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/education/ERC/resources.html
16 February 1999. An annular eclipse with annularity visible in a path across Australia from west to northeast, extending from north of Perth to near Cairns. A partial eclipse will be visible in the south Atlantic Ocean, southern Africa and Madagascar except its northern tip, Indonesia except for northwestern Sumatra, the extreme southern Malaysian peninsula including Singapore, the southern Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the southern island of New Zealand, and most of Antarctica. The magnitude will be 99.3%, with a maximum duration of 40 seconds.
11 August 1999. A total eclipse with totality beginning in the Atlantic off the northeast American coast, reaching Europe at Land's End in Britain, and extending through parts of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and India. The magnitude of totality is 103%, and the maximum eclipse will occur over Romania and last 2 minutes 23 seconds. The path is especially narrow, never exceeding 113 km. The partial eclipse will be visible from northeastern US and Canada at sunrise, Greenland, all of Europe, most of Asia except the extreme east, and with the eastern limit extending southward through Bangaladesh and east of Calcutta in India. The northern half of Africa will also see a partial eclipse.
2000
There will be no total or annular solar eclipses in the year 2000.
5 February 2000. The partial solar eclipse, with a magnitude of 59%, will be visible only from Antarctica.
1 July 2000. The partial eclipse will be visible mainly from the extreme southern Pacific Ocean, not quite extending down to Antarctica. The magnitude will be 48%. The only land from which the partial eclipse will be visible is the southern halves of Chile and Argentina.
31 July 2000. The partial eclipse will be visible from the northern part of Greenland, the northwest of the continental United States (from a line extending through the western parts of the Dakotas through Colorado, northwest Utah, mid-Nevada, and mid-California), western Canada, Alaska, northern Russia, and northern Scandinavia. The magnitude will be 60%.
25 December 2000. The partial eclipse will be visible through all of North America except Alaska, Central America as far south as Nicaragua, and the extreme northern tip of Columbia and Venezuela, including Aruba and many other Caribbean islands extending southeast from the U.S. to the Leeward Islands. It will extend as far east as the Azores. The magnitude will be 72%.
Web sites:
Fred Espenak's
Web Page
International Astronomical Union Working Group on Eclipses:
http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/IAU_eclipses
references:
Fred Espenak, Fifty Year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1986-2035, NASA Reference
Publication 1178 Revised, July 1987.
Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff, The Solar Corona, Cambridge University Press, 1998. http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/corona
Jay M. Pasachoff, Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, 5th ed., Saunders College Publishing, 1998. http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/jay
Provided by Jay M. Pasachoff
Williams College, Williamstown, MA
01267, USA
Chair, Working Group on Eclipses of
the International Astronomical Union
NASA'S Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, The Exploratorium, and Discovery Online have a website at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov dedicated to the February 26th total eclipse.
Two animations of the February 26, 1998 eclipse as viewed from space are available here.
Stellarimages and the Discovery Channel had up-to-date coverage of the 1998 total solar eclipse.
The views from the GOES satellite in orbit around the Earth showing the progress of the 26 February 1998 and 11 July 1991 eclipses across the face of the Earth are available at
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/software/mcidas_movie.html
http://hiris.anorg.chemie.tu-muenchen.de/AAL/otto/solarsystem/homepage.htm
Two animations of the February 26, 1998 eclipse as viewed from space are available here.
$14 paper models of Voyager, Galileo, Magellan, Hubble, Keck, and Mars Global Surveyor.
