Table of Contents
Response to the first two eclipse bulletins was overwhelming. When the January 1994 issue of Sky and Telescope announced their availability, as many as 160 requests per week were received for them. Since requests for the May bulletin outnumbered the November bulletin by four to one, an additional 600 copies of RP1301 were reprinted in late January. Nevertheless, the demand quickly exceeded the supply for both bulletins and funding sources did not permit more printings to fill all requests. It also became clear that the requests were consuming a great deal of time, secretarial work and postage. To conserve resources and to make responses faster and more efficient, the proceedure for requesting eclipse bulletins has been modified as follows.
Single copies of the bulletins are available at no cost and may be ordered by sending a 9 x 12 inch SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) with sufficient postage (11 oz. or 310 g.). Use stamps only; cash or checks cannot be accepted. Requests within the U. S. may use the Postal Service's Priority Mail for $2.90. Please print either the NASA RP number or the eclipse date (year & month) of the bulletin ordered in the lower left corner of the SASE. Requests from outside the U.S. and Canada may use international postal coupons sufficient to cover postage. Exceptions to the postage requirements will be made for international requests where political or economic restraints prevent the transfer of funds to other countries. Finally, all requests should be accompanied by a copy of the request form on page 73. Bulletin requests may be made to either of the authors. Comments, suggestions, criticisms and corrections are solicited to improve the content and layout in subsequent editions of this publication series, and may be sent to Espenak.
Since we are now entering the age of the 'Information Highway', it seems fitting that the eclipse bulletins should be served electronically. Thanks to the initiative and expertise of Dr. Joe Gurman (GSFC/Solar Physics Branch), the first three eclipse bulletins are all available over the Internet. Formats include a BinHex-encoded version of the original MS Word file + PICT + GIF (scanned GNC maps), as well as a hypertext version. 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. Most of the files are also available via anonymous ftp. In addition, path data for all central eclipses through the year 2000 are available via http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse/predictions/eclipse-paths.html. For more details, please see the section on Eclipse Data on the Internet. Naturally, all future eclipse bulletins will also be available via Internet.
RP 1344 marks a milestone as the first eclipse bulletin to be generated entirely on a Macintosh computer (excluding the GNC maps). As such, it represents the culmination of a two year project to migrate a great deal of eclipse prediction and mapping software from mainframe (DEC VAX 11/785) to personal computer (Macintosh IIfx) and from one programming language (FORTRAN IV) to another (THINK Pascal). This bulletin is also the first to be printed on a 600 dpi laser printer. The contrast, resolution and readability is a noticeable improvement. The authors have also adopted the international convention of presenting date and time in descending order (i.e. year, month, day, hour, minute, second). Word processing and page layout for the publication were done using Microsoft Word v5.1. Figure annotation was done with Claris MacDraw Pro 1.5. Meteorological diagrams were prepared using Windows Draw 3.0 and converted to Macintosh compatible files.
We would like to acknowledge the valued contrbutions of a number of individuals that were essential to the success of this publication. The format and content of the NASA eclipse bulletins has drawn heavily upon over 40 years of eclipse Circulars published by the U. S. Naval Observatory. We owe a debt of gratitude to past and present staff of that institution who have performed this service for so many years. In particular, we would like to recognize the work of Julena S. Duncombe, Alan D. Fiala, Marie R. Lukac, John A. Bangert and William T. Harris. The many publications and algorithms of Dr. Jean Meeus have served to inspire a life-long interest in eclipse prediction. We thank Francis Reddy, who helped develop the data base of geographic coordinates for major cities used in the local circumstances predictions. Dr. Wayne Warren graciously provided a draft copy of the IOTA Observer's Manual for use in describing contact timings near the path limits. Dr. Jay M. Pasachoff kindly reviewed the manuscript and offered a number of valuable suggestions. The availability of the eclipse bulletins via the Internet is due entirely to the efforts of Dr. Joseph B. Gurman. The support of Environment Canada is acknowledged in the acquisition and arrangement of the weather data. Finally, the authors thank Goddard's Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics for several minutes of CPU time on the LEPVX2 computer. The time was used for verifying predictions generated with the Macintosh.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any portion of this Reference Publication, including data, figures, maps, tables and text (except for material noted as having been published elsewhere, or by persons other than the authors). All uses and/or publication of this material should be accompanied by an appropriate acknowledgment of the source (e.g. - "Reprinted from Total Solar Eclipse of 1995 October 24, Espenak and Anderson, 1994"). The names and spellings of countries, cities and other geopolitical regions are not authoritative, nor do they imply any official recognition in status. Corrections to names, geographic coordinates and elevations are actively solicited in order to update the data base for future eclipses. All calculations, diagrams and opinions presented in this publication are those of the authors and they assume full responsibility for their accuracy.
Fred Espenak Jay Anderson NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Prairie Weather Centre Planetary Systems Branch, Code 693 900-266 Graham Avenue Greenbelt, MD 20771 Winnipeg, MB, USA CANADA R3C 3V4 Fax: (301) 286-0212 Fax: (204) 983-0109 Internet: Bitnet: u32fe@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov jander@cc.umanitoba.ca
NASA Eclipse Bulletin RP # Publication Date Annular Solar Eclipse of 1994 May 10 1301 April 1993 Total Solar Eclipse of 1994 November 3 1318 October 1993 Total Solar Eclipse of 1995 October 24 1344 July 1994 - - - - - - - - - - - - - future - - - - - - - - - - - - - Total Solar Eclipse of 1997 March 9 ---- Spring 1995 Total Solar Eclipse of 1998 February 26 ---- Fall-Winter 1995 Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11 ---- Fall 1996
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