After 15 years and three unsuccessful eclipses – two totals and an
annular – the October 2005 annular, coming as it did at the time when the autumn
weather tends to be unstable, did not seem promising. As it passed over Madrid
and Valencia (Spain’s capital and 3rd city respectively) though,
plus a host of other important cities,
it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, particularly being invited to
join the BBC “Sky at Night” team to cover the event. This was not a
particularly good eclipse, with the Moon 5% smaller than the Sun and a
predicted duration of annularity in Madrid, almost on the centre line, of 4
minutes 11 seconds, so many of the more spectacular phenomena associated with
eclipses would be lacking. However,
despite this, there was huge anticipation of the event in the Spanish media as
the last annular eclipse to cross the country had been in 1764, although there
had been a total eclipse in the Canary Islands as recently as 1959.
The Sky at Night team consisted of Chris Lintott and Jane Fletcher,
supported by Mandy Burton from the BBC Birmingham office and the team’s regular
cameraman, Dave. The astronomical team was Pete Lawrence, Ian Sharp (who I had
not seen since our last day at university in 1982), Damian Peach, Dave Tyler
and myself, so it was a powerful one. Having considered the options the chosen
site was Madrid Planetarium; Valencia had been examined, but the flights were
more expensive and so was rejected (yes, “Auntie Beeb” does count the pennies
gathered from the licence fee). Madrid Planetarium is sited, along with the
IMAX theatre, in the Tierno Galván Park, close to Atocha station and its
memorial to the Madrid train bombings. Although the area around the Planetarium
is not exactly picture postcard, the park is a beautiful oasis in a somewhat
rundown area of big apartment blocks and it is possible to forget completely
that it is in the middle of a city of three million.
The advance guard of the team checked out the site the day before,
worrying about the large number of trees and the predictions that fifteen
thousand people might appear. They selected an auditorium in the form of a
large amphitheatre in a depression less than 150-m from the planetarium. This
afforded a good horizon and there was an excellent level spot above it to set
up the telescopes. Anticipating crowds and with a need to do a polar alignment,
the team decided to meet in the hotel lobby at 6am and check-out before heading
off to observe. The sky was still almost black when we arrived and totally
clean and clear. The set-up was completed swiftly and we prepared to savour the
atmosphere. By 7am council workers had already arrived and were setting up,
swiftly followed by the first outside broadcast tv vans. By 8am there was
already a small crowd waiting for their eclipse glasses and at least half a
dozen tv teams were set up, some already broadcasting for breakfast programmes.
Within a few minutes the operation to distribute glasses and information
started, with the public directed through two channels of crash barriers where
planetarium staff spent nearly three hours frantically passing out glasses as
fast as they could. The operation was impressive, orderly and extremely
efficient, but even when annularity started the queues for glasses were at
least 100-m long. Asunsión Sánchez, the planetarium director commented that
more than sixteen thousand people had attended. As the giant screen relayed
images from the planetarium’s small telescope the crowds started to spread out
through the park. There were literally hundreds of telescopes and camera
tripods spread around yet, amazingly, apart from one Finnish amateur, a French
one and three or four curious Spaniards, nobody approached the BBC’s vantage
point just behind the building.
The atmosphere was amazing, helped in no small part by the wonderful
weather and a quite extraordinary sunrise brilliantly captured in an image by
Pete Lawrence, with golden sunbeams radiating through the trees. However, Madrid and Valencia were lucky,
being sandwiched between two thick areas of cloud that covered a substantial
part of the Iberian Peninsula; not far north of Madrid and south of Valencia
the conditions were hopeless.
First contact was extremely swift with a simultaneous cry of “it’s
started!” going up from everyone (as the sound recording of this moment was
apparently poor, watchers of the Sky at Night will see a re-enactment of our
reaction to first contact). The Moon seemed to enter the Sun’s disk at an
astonishing rate initially.
As partiality progressed, Jane and Chris decided to take the small
camera and capture the atmosphere outside the planetarium and do some
interviews with the crowd. The words “Can you speak English?” and “this is for
the BBC” had an amazing effect, with some people literally hiding and others
eager to speak. A huge area was completely covered with people watching with
their glasses on, through telescopes and crouched over cameras, while around
the big screen thousands and thousands of people watched the images from any
vantage point. With a few minutes to go to 2nd contact Jane and
Chris decided to set up in the middle of the crowd and prepare to film
annularity. The atmosphere was electric as the horns started to close around
the Moon. Already several minutes before annularity it was strikingly obvious
that the Moon was smaller than the Sun and that it would not completely cover
the disk. Second contact was marked by a brief display of beads that were
obvious though my 20x80s, although Chris, observing with the naked eye, did not
see them.
Through annularity, violinist Ali Malikian of the Madrid Symphony
Orchestra played a solo called “Lunar Shadow” that he had composed specially
for the event. The haunting music either enhanced or completely ruined the
event according to your opinion. The 4m11s of annularity seemed all too brief.
During annularity there was a pronounced change in the light: although the sky
was still bright, it was quite noticeably much darker and the colours changed
completely. Chris had carefully looked up the positions of Mercury and Venus,
but was unable to see them. At the same time as the change in the light, the
temperature dropped rapidly; most stations reported a drop of around 2.5ºC, but
in some the drop was as large as 4ºC (see, for example http://www.astrobril.nl/eclipsen8Madrid.html). All through
annularity the crowd was silent and the dim light and muted colours contributed
to the ethereal air. While Chris and I commented on the annularity, Jane
Fletcher stood solidly with her back to the Sun, filming, without so much as a
look over her shoulder during the entire time – the consummate broadcasting
professional!
The biggest surprise though came at 3rd contact. Some
observing groups had gone to the north and south limits to see Baily’s Beads.
Having checked the limb charts we knew that there was a deep valley at 3rd
contact that might give beads. What we were not prepared for was the quite
dazzling fragmentation of the solar limb. Over the course of more than 5
seconds, through the 20x80s, there were prolonged and spectacular beads that
were quite obvious to the naked eye too. The solar limb fragmented in at least
15 places in a stunning and totally unexpected display. This display of beads
caused some debate afterwards, with a suggestion that the poor seeing and
trembling limb might have caused false beads. Pete Lawrence has though done a
careful study of the beads in images and the limb profile and has found that
the correspondence is excellent and that both agree with the impressions of the
visual observers.
With so many trees around, there was no limit to the possibilities for
photographing eclipse shadows. The display was magnificent with the ground
covered with countless thousands of pinhole images of the Sun. After annularity
the crowds started to disperse rapidly, although hundreds of people remained
even at 4th contact. The team was euphoric and agreed that it had
been an unexpectedly spectacular event, even if the old hands kept saying “wait
until you have seen a total”. The group was great company, the observing site
excellent, there was an amazing atmosphere and the weather perfect… what more
could we ask for? It turned out that of the group only one person had seen an
eclipse previously, with everyone else unsuccessful in their previous attempts.
Success at my 4th attempt after 15 years has just made me hungry for
more.