There (70°S @ 10,177 m) and Back Again, An Umbraphile's Tale

摘要

Until 23 Nov 2003, no total solar eclipse (TSE) had ever been observed from the Antarctic. Yet, interest in securing observationsof that event, visible only from the Antarctic, was extremely high and pro-vided the impetus for breaking that paradigm of elusivity in the historicalrecord of science and exploration. The execution of a lunar shadow inter-cept and the conduction of an observing program from a Boeing 747-400ER aircraft over the Antarctic interior permitted the previously unob-tainable to be accomplished. The unique computational and navigationalrequirements for this flight are discussed from the enabling perspective ofcontrol and data acquisition S/W specifically developed for this task.