Abstract
IT is now possible to amplify the brief reference in Nature of February 7 (p. 196) to the application to geodesy of the times of contact to be observed at different stations on the track of the annular eclipse of May 8–9, 1948. The first suggestion that such observations might provide information as to the earth‘s shape over areas where geodetic triangulation is impracticable was made by Mr. G. E. Barton (Mon. Not. Boy. Ast. Soc.,64, 105 ; 1926). His observations at Benkoelen at the eclipse of January 14, 1926, were spoilt by an unfortunate accident, but the idea was afterwards adopted, and expeditions from a number of countries used improved methods of time determination of such observations at the total eclipses of 1945 and 1947 by parties well separated in longitude. For the annular eclipse of next May, the National Geographic Society of the United States has prepared an elaborate scheme of observations at seven ground stations from Mergui in southern Burma to Kiska in the Aleutians. These will be supplemented by observations from aeroplanes of the U.S. Air Force ; photographs of the eclipse will be taken from above the clouds from positions determined by short-range radar navigational methods.
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Eclipse Observations for Geodesy. Nature 161, 389 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161389a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161389a0