Daily Image
17-06-2021
Live-streaming the partial solar eclipse
| Submitter: | Tammo Jan Dijkema, Hans van der Meer |
| Description: | On 10 June, we showed the partial solar eclipse from the Dwingeloo radio telescope in a live stream organized by volunteers and staff from the Oude Sterrewacht in Leiden that also showed the optical eclipse. Questions from viewers were relayed to the speakers by the two hosts, both astronomy students from Leiden. During the broadcast, we presented the live signal of the Dwingeloo telescope (total intensity at 410MHz), which showed a clear dip. The new, crowd-funded heliostat at the Oude Sterrewacht in Leiden demonstrated its first non-cloudy eclipse. We showed live signals from a Lunt solar telescope, and piggy-backed on a livestream from Canada where an annular eclipse could (almost) be seen. The live stream lasted 2.5 hours, so there were also short talks on the scientific, biological and historical background of eclipses. In Dwingeloo, dozens of passers-by could also get a glimpse of the eclipse: Harm-Jan Stiepel had brought a projecting telescope that clearly showed the Sun on a big piece of cardboard. There were also eclipse glasses, and a professional explanation from Pietro Zucca. Both were featured in the nice tv item on RTV Drenthe. The live stream was a collaboration between Werkgroep Leidse Sterrewacht, Leidse Sterrewacht, the student association F. Kaiser from Leiden, and CAMRAS. Thanks to media attention, the amount of live viewers was quite high: about 1500 people watched live, and the recording was played back 17000 times (so far). |
| Copyright: | Tammo Jan Dijkema |
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