Eclipse Bulletins on Internet

Response to the first two NASA solar eclipse bulletins RP1301 (Annular Solar Eclipse of 10 May 1994) and RP1318 (Total Solar Eclipse of 3 November 1994) was overwhelming. Unfortunately, the demand exceeded the supply and current funding sources did not permit additional printings to fill all requests. To address this problem as well as allowing greater access to them, these eclipse bulletins were both made available via the Internet in April 1994. This was due entirely through the kind efforts and expertise of Dr. Joe Gurman (GSFC/Solar Physics Branch). The 1995 bulletin is also being made available via Internet.

Formats include BinHex-encoded versions of the original Microsoft Word (for Macintosh) text files and those figures generated in PICT format, GIF versions of all the figures, and JPEG scans of the GNC maps of the eclipse path, as well as hypertext versions. They can be read or downloaded via the World-Wide Web server with a mosaic client from the SDAC (Solar Data Analysis Center) home page:

http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/sdac.html

The top-level URL for the eclipse bulletins themselves are:

BinHex-encoded, StuffIt Lite-compressed version of the original Word and PICT files are available via anonymous ftp at:

Directories of GIF figures, ASCII tables, and JPEG maps are also accessible through the Web.

Current plans call for making all future NASA eclipse bulletins available over the Internet, at or before publication of each. It should be noted that this is a first attempt to make the bulletins available electronically. The primary goal has been 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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