Solar Eclipse 2015 – Members’ Experiences

The Solar Eclipse, 20th March 2015, charted by Ron Livesey (Click to enlarge)

I observed the partial solar eclipse at home using a 65mm refractor and a 105mm projection screen, alt-azimuth mounted. The technique was to allow the solar image to cross the projection screen, and to note the limb of the moon at each time the Sun was in conjunction with the screen, which was graticuled to determine positions. The observations were recorded in a notebook with a 105mm diameter circle. An identically graticuled circle was placed behind the page as a guide. Finally, to determine the position of the solar axis, the Sun’s image was allowed to drift across the screen and sunspot positions were noted at intervals. The line joining the positions of the sunspot gave the line of declination. The solar axis was drawn perpendicular to this line through the centre of the disc.

Ron Livesey

This is one of a series of personal accounts recorded by our members of their experience viewing the partial solar eclipse on the 20th of March 2015.