Eclipse 2024
The
2017 total solar eclipse provided the first successful measurement of
gravitational deflection due to the Sun’s mass, since 1973. That eclipse
was only 2 minutes long, but provided the most accurate deflections ever
recorded by a telescope on Earth. In 2024, an even better opportunity arises,
and I am helping others make the most of it.
The
2024 eclipse is more than twice as long, so with the same telescope, twice as
many photons can be collected. In 2017, half of the time was spent taking
calibration images. If a larger field of view camera is used, then the
calibration can be done using stars further from the Sun. This also doubles the
data collection. If the camera uses a full-frame (35mm) sensor, this captures
an area 5.3 times larger, assuming the same telescope uses a field flattener
with 0.8x reduction. In addition, the new CMOS cameras have a small overhead
time, so the collection efficiency is doubled. Since there will be no need to
take a series of shorter images to collect stars close to the limb, this adds
another 20% improvement. When all
of these improvements are combined, the 2024 eclipse should collect 50 times
more starlight! The limiting magnitude should be about 2.4 magnitudes dimmer, or
a total of over 400 stars, compared to the 20 stars measured in 2017. The gravitational
deflection coefficient might be four times better, or less than a 1%
error. The initial plan is to set
up 10 telescopes, reducing the uncertainty by another factor of 3. This would be the best measurement until
the eclipses of 2027. Please
contact me (dbruns [at] stellarproducts
{dot} com) if you are interested in participating. An educational grant is
being investigated to provide funding for equipment and travel.
Thank you for your interest in Stellar Products!
All content is Copyright
2005-2021 by Don Bruns
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Web page last updated March 25, 2021.