Next sectionThe scale of these maps has been increased to 1:2,500,000, adequate for showing major transportation routes, cities and villages, coarse topography, lakes and rivers, suitable for eclipse expedition planning. Caution should be employed in using these maps as no distinction has been made between major highways and second class soft-surface roads in the map plot. Those eclipse viewers who require more detailed plots of the eclipse track should use the data contained within the tables in this publication and larger scale background maps.
The DCW database was assembled in the 1980s and contains names of places that are no longer used in some parts of Africa, particularly Zimbabwe. Where possible, modern names have been substituted for those in the database but this correction could not be applied to all sites. Some areas of missing topographic data appear as blank white rectangles on the map background.
Northern and southern limits as well as the center line of the
path are plotted using data from
Table 7. Although no corrections
have been made for center of figure or lunar limb profile, they have
little or no effect at this scale. Atmospheric refraction has not been
included, as its effects play a significant role only at very low solar
altitudes. In any case, refraction corrections to the path are uncertain
since they depend on the atmospheric temperature-pressure profile,
which cannot be predicted in advance. If observations from the graze
zones are planned, then the zones of grazing eclipse must be plotted
on higher scale maps using coordinates in
Table 8. See PLOTTING
THE PATH ON MAPS for sources and more information. The paths
also show the curves of maximum eclipse at two-minute increments
in UT. These maps are also available
on the Web.
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