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M K V Bappu

One of nature’s grandest displays, a total solar eclipse
can be inspiring, even awesome.

There was an air of hushed expectancy in our camp as I saw the moon’s shadow approach from the distant hills in the west. In a few seconds the last traces of the sun’s brilliant disc would be covered by the moon brining into view the ruddy chromosphere and pearly white corona.

My first task was to announce this instant. Viewing the disappearance of the bright solar disk through a monocular with a transmission grating ahead of it, the bright lines of the chromosphere flashed into view replacing the dark absorption lines of the normally visible solar photosphere. For the next 203 seconds, my team-mate and I were to carry out a programme of photographing the coronal form and its spectrum. We had travelled nearly 20,000 km to the village of Miahuatlan in Mexico, carrying along four tonnes of equipment, to observe this total solar eclipse of 7 March, 1970.

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