 |
Solar Eclipse Conference 2014 (SEC 2014) Sacramento Peak Observatory & Cloudcroft, United States of America | |
| A Crossroad on Physics & Eclipses of the Sun | ||
 The Solar Eclipse Mailing List (SEML) and before the Solar Eclipse Newsletter (SENL) had been successful as a vehicle in bringing together solar eclipse enthusiasts, professionals and amateurs alike. The Solar Eclipse Conference in Antwerp (SEC 2000), October 2000, was an extension of the electronic contacts and was for sure a success. In two days over 35 lectures had been presented to 155 participants from 22 different countries. The Solar Eclipse Conference is repeated at non-central eclipse years. The international Solar Eclipse Conference of 2004 (SEC 2004) was held in August 2004 at the Open University of Milton Keynes, England. SEC 2004 had 115 delegates out of 20 different countries. The international Solar Eclipse Conference (SEC 2007) was held at the renovated Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, USA. The program started Friday 24 August 2007 evening and ended Sunday 26 August 2007 afternoon. As icing on the cake, we had the opportunity to watch a total lunar eclipse on August 28 : visible in its entirety only from the western USA, New Zealand or eastern Australia and the Pacific Ocean. The first three SECs were organized by Patrick & Joanne Poitevin, but at the end of SEC 2007 Patrick announced he would drop the ball. The fourth international Solar Eclipse Conference (SEC 2011), was organized by SPACE, and held from 2011 December 15th to 17th in New Delhi, India. The sixth international Solar Eclipse Conference (SEC 2018) will be held in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain from July 27 to 28th, 2018.  |
||
 |
||
 |
Over the last few decades, there have been dramatic changes in solar eclipse traveling. Solar Eclipse specialists meet most of the time in the shadow of the Moon. Solar Eclipse meetings out of totality are rare, or are mainly focused on solar physics. The Solar Eclipse Mailing List and before the Solar Eclipse Newsletter has been successful as a vehicle in bringing together solar eclipse enthusiast, professionals and amateurs alike. Because there was no central eclipse in 2000 we had been presented with a perfect opportunity for an International Solar Eclipse Conference. We have had this project in mind for some time, but mainly due to planning eclipse travels it has been put on hold. The aim of the conferences is to bring together professionals and amateurs, addicts, enthusiasts, and chasers, as with the mailing list and the newsletter, sharing information, knowledge, and experience. For the same reason we organized an international Solar Eclipse Conference in 2004 and 2007. After four international Solar Eclipse Conferences (SEC 2000, SEC 2004, SEC 2007 and SEC 2011), we feel that still not all topics and subjects, related to solar eclipses have been presented and discussed. SEC 2014 will be the next opportunity to meet and discuss. Two days of lectures, October 25th and 26th, were given at the Cloudcroft Lodge Resort in each of the disciplines : predictions, mathematics, solar physics, weather forecasting, eye safety, diameter measuring, edge and central, and ancient eclipse research. Of course the latest and forthcoming solar eclipses have been great topics of discussion, along with the past Venus Transit. On the 24th evening a welcome reception took place at the New Mexico Museum of Space History. Cloudcroft, New Mexico, is located to the northeast of El Paso, Texas, near the famous White Sands rocket development and testing area (there is also the White Sands National Monument and the Carlsbad Caverns National Park to visit), and the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot. A two-day pre-conference option with practical presentations and sessions on solar observing and imaging, partial solar eclipse observations, and BBQ at Sacramento Peak Observatory was also organized. Due to space limitations the optional pre-conference was only available to a limited number of people. | |
| 3rd International Solar Eclipse Conference at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, USA (25 August 2007 Xavier Jubier lecture) | ||
 |
||
| 4th International Solar Eclipse Conference at Rama Krishna auditorium in New Delhi, India (16 December 2011 Xavier Jubier lecture) | ||
| Partial Solar Eclipse | ||
| On October 23rd a partial solar eclipse was visible from the Western USA and Sacramento Peak Observatory. The weather was gorgeous as it is usually at that time of the year. | ||
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
|
Partial eclipse at 21:46 UTC (12 minutes after first contact) |
Partial eclipse at 22:46 UTC (just after maximum) |
Partial eclipse at 23:38 UTC (12 minutes before fourth contact) |
