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The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia pp 795–814Cite as

American Observations of the 22 January 1898 Total Solar Eclipse from Jeur, India

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Part of the book series: Historical & Cultural Astronomy ((HCA))

Abstract

Between 1889 and 1932 Lick Observatory maintained a vibrant solar research program and sent a succession of expeditions to the far corners of the glove in order to observe solar eclipses and add to our knowledge of the solar corona and the chromosphere. These expeditions were major logistical exercises that relied mainly on visual, photographic and spectroscopic observations during the brief moments of totality.

In this chapter we focus on Lick Observatory’s expedition to Jeur, India, arranged to observe the 22 January 1898 total solar eclipse, and discuss the personnel, their equipment and their observations. We then briefly view this very successful expedition in the context of the overall development of solar astronomy in India, which culminated in the founding of Kodaikanal Observatory.

This chapter is a revised version of Orchiston and Pearson (The Lick Observatory solar eclipse expedition to Jeur (India) in 1898. In T. Nakamura et al. (Eds.), 2011. Mapping the Oriental Sky. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Oriental Astronomy(pp. 197–206). Tokyo: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan).

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dorothy Shaumberg from the Mary Lea Shane Archives at the University of California for making available photographs reproduced in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, 260 Moo 4, T. Donkaew, A. Maerim, Chiang Mai, 50180, Thailand

    Wayne Orchiston & John Pearson

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  1. Wayne Orchiston
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Correspondence to Wayne Orchiston .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Oriental Studies, Daito-Bunka University, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan

    Tsuko Nakamura

  2. National Astronomical Research, Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Wayne Orchiston

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Orchiston, W., Pearson, J. (2017). American Observations of the 22 January 1898 Total Solar Eclipse from Jeur, India. In: Nakamura, T., Orchiston, W. (eds) The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62082-4_26

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