About this image

The total solar eclipse of 1980 February 16, was photographed from Palem, India, by a research team from the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado and Southwestern at Memphis College (now Rhodes College), Memphis, Tennesee. Members of the team were John L. Streete and Leon B. Lacey. The expedition was sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

The photograph of the solar corona was taken with a camera system developed by Gordon A. Newkirk, Jr. This specialized instrument photographs the corona in red light, 6400 A -- through a radially graded filter that suppresses the bright inner corona in order to show the much fainter streamers of the outer corona in the same photograph.

Technical Information


Date:      February 16, 1980
Pangle:    -17.65 degrees  [Heliocentric north is 17.65 degrees
           clockwise of vertical.  Vertical (top) is geocentric north.  
           Left (9 o'clock) is east.]

Objective aperture:   11.1 cm
Focal length:         178 cm
Focal ratio:          f/15

Film:                        Kodak Linagraph Shellburst (70 mm)
Development D76 (1:1):       8.5 minutes
Wavelength isolation filer:  Schott OG-3

Effective wavelength: 6400 A
Exposure:               24 seconds  (approximately)
Radial filter range:   10⁴ in transmission.

Credit: High Altitude Observatory and Rhodes College