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Document URL: http://www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk/news/2006-archive/2006-03-29-solEclipse/index.html Leave print version
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The Partial Solar Eclipse on 29 March 2006 seen from ULO

WARNING: Under no circumstances look at the sun through an unfiltered telescope.

The day started out with thick cloud cover.

Thankfully the weather cleared up a bit just in time, providing enough opening in the cloud cover to observe the event. The second image below was taken without any filter - the filtering was done by the clouds.


The morning sky seen from ULO The morning sky seen from ULO
The eclipsed sun seen from ULO The eclipsed sun seen from ULO

We were filming the sun in H-alpha throughout the event, using first a colour PlanetCam and later a black-and-white Astrovid 2000 on our Solarscope. This was piggy-backed on our 10in Meade telescope. From this footage we extracted the stills below.



The sun seen from ULO at 10:48:38 BST 10:48:38 BST
The sun seen from ULO at 11:00:23 BST 11:00:23 BST
The sun seen from ULO at 11:04:20 BST 11:04:20 BST

The sun seen from ULO at 11:18:57 BST 11:18:57 BST
The sun seen from ULO at 11:27:56 BST 11:27:56 BST
The sun seen from ULO at 11:53:07 BST 11:53:07 BST

The sun seen from ULO at 12:01:37 BST 12:01:37 BST
The sun seen from ULO at 12:20:00 BST 12:20:00 BST

We also had departmental staff and postgraduate students based at Gower Street visiting the Observatory. With the weather playing along they did not regret having made the short trip to Mill Hill.


Staff and postgraduate students observing visually with the Fry and H-alpha solar filter. Staff and postgraduate students observing visually with the Fry and H-alpha solar filter.
Camera on the Solarscope feeding images to a PC, and the Meade telescope in the background. A camera on the Solarscope fed images to a PC, the Meade can be seen in the background.

21-inch monitor displaying camera images The camera images were displayed on a .
ULO and Gower Street staff in the Fry building. ULO and Gower Street staff in the Fry building.