Eclipse Data on Internet

To make the NASA solar eclipse bulletins accessible to as large an audience as possible, these publications are also available via the Internet. This was made possible through the efforts and expertise of Dr. Joe Gurman (GSFC/Solar Physics Branch). All future eclipse bulletins will be available via Internet.

NASA eclipse bulletins can be read or downloaded via the World-Wide Web using a Web browser (e.g.: Netscape, Microsoft Explorer, etc.) from the GSFC SDAC (Solar Data Analysis Center) Eclipse Information page, or from top-level URL's for the currently available eclipse bulletins themselves:

The original Microsoft Word text files and PICT figures (Macintosh format) are also available via anonymous ftp. They are stored as BinHex-encoded, StuffIt-compressed Mac folders with .hqx suffixes. For PC's, the text is available in a zip-compressed format in files with the .zip suffix. There are three sub directories for figures (GIF format), maps (JPEG format), and tables (html tables, easily readable as plain text). For example, NASA RP 1344 (Total Solar Eclipse of 1995 October 24 [=951024]) has a directory for these files is as follows:

Other eclipse bulletins have a similar directory format.

Current plans call for making all future NASA eclipse bulletins available over the Internet, at or before publication of each. The primary goal is to make the bulletins available to as large an audience as possible. Thus, some figures or maps may not be at their optimum resolution or format. Comments and suggestions are actively solicited to fix problems and improve on compatibility and formats.


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