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The Annular Eclipse at Sunspot, New Mexico - ...(1Jun94) 10 May 1994: Science Experiments at NSO/Sacramento Peak (from NSO, NOAO Newsletter No. 38, 1 June 1994) Four experiments will be run by scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) at Sacramento Peak during the upcoming annular eclipse. A scientist from Sunspot, Stephen Keil, will lead an experiment using both the large Vacuum Tower Telescope and an instrument in the smaller Hilltop Observatory. The experiment will use the limb of the moon to calibrate the solar images from both observatories. Since the limb of the moon is a sharp edge, scientists can study how the Earth's atmosphere distorts the moon, and then correct for these distortions. This correction can also be applied to small features visible on the surface of the Sun, and in this way smaller details can be resolved on the solar surface. A second project will use the large Vacuum Tower Telescope run by Rudolf Komm and Wolfgang Mattig (Kiepenheuer Institute, Freiburg, Germany). This experiment will also use the sharp edge of the lunar limb to correct the image distortions caused by the Earth's atmosphere. By using dark lines that appear in the solar spectrum, this study will also investigate the temperature and velocity of gas at different layers in the solar atmosphere. Another project to be run during the annular eclipse will use the telescope at the Evans Solar Facility. Jean Arnaud (Toulouse Observatory, France) will study the polarization of the ring of sunlight at the peak of the eclipse to measure the magnetic field of the Sun. Magnetic fields have long been known to occur in sunspots, but this experiment will concentrate on measuring the weak magnetic fields on other parts of the solar surface. This project will also study prominences at the limb of the Sun. As the lunar limb moves across a prominence, small details will be measured, hopefully providing scientists with the best maps of a prominence ever made. A final project will be run by Bernard Jackson (University of California, San Diego). With collaborators, Jackson will study the height variation of temperature in the solar atmosphere, using data from the Full-Limb coronagraph in the Hilltop Dome. The darker-than-normal skies near the maximum phase of the eclipse may allow observations of very faint structures high in the solar atmosphere. These data will refine previous theories about the heating of large structures in the solar atmosphere; some of these structures are so large that they stretch all the way to Earth! Matt Penn
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