Data Sources III — Eclipses and Occultations

Abstract

At the time of writing, interest in the 1999 Total Eclipse of the Sun, visible from the extreme south-west of England and across Europe, is already reaching fever pitch. Hotel bookings along the path of totality are virtually all gone but there will be another way to watch this (and subsequent ones for that matter). What I am talking about is web broadcasts. Due to a technique called streaming you can have images, even sound and movies (with an appropriate software plug-in), live within your web-browser. Video cameras broadcasting to the Internet tend to be known as “Webcams”. Here in the UK Michael Oates, who runs the excellent web site for the society of Popular Astronomy, was probably the first to show live images of the 1996 partial eclipse. The following year, the 1997 total eclipse took place and there was the first successful attempt to capture a total eclipse live and broadcast it on the Internet. This service was organised by a Japanese group called LIVE!ECLIPSE and as the eclipse took place in Mongolia and Siberia, it brought a remote event to many who otherwise could not have seen it. From now on you can expect every eclipse, including the 1999 one, to spawn numerous web sites covering them live online.