King Rama IV and French Observations of the 18 August 1868 Total Solar Eclipse from Wah-koa, Siam

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Abstract

The 18 August 1868 total solar eclipse was a watershed event in the history of solar physics, and a notable event in the history of Thai astronomy. This was the first solar eclipse subjected to detailed spectroscopic scrutiny, and the first solar eclipse investigated scientifically by Thai and Western scholars since King Narai and French Jesuit missionary-astronomers observed the partial solar eclipse of 30 April 1688 from Lop Buri.

While the major scientific breakthroughs made during the 1868 eclipse derived for the most part from India—where there were teams of English and French astronomers—the French also dispatched a second observing team, to Thailand, and they and King Rama IV and his entourage made successful observations of this important celestial event.

In this chapter we focus mainly on the French expedition to Thailand, which was based at Wah-koa in the Gulf of Thailand, and we examine the associated personnel, the selection and establishment of their observing station, the scientific instruments that they used and the observations that they made.

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Notes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. James Caplan (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), Dr. Suzanne Débarbat and Dr. James Lequeux (Observatoire de Paris) and Dr. William Tobin (Vannes, France) for providing information relevant to this chapter, and Bordeaux and Marseille Observatories for kindly supplying Figs. 12.11, 12.13 and 12.14.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.National Astronomical Research Institute of ThailandChiang MaiThailand

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