December 14, 2020 – Total EclipseCompound image from 65 originals from Andreas Möller at Piedras del Aguila made by Roman Vanur/Jay Pasachoff, including a coronal mass ejection (CME) at left and an eclipse comet, Comet/SOHO-4108, also observed from U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s C2 coronagraph on the European Space Agency’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) and with NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft.

Pasachoff Jay M., Vojtech Rusin, Roman Vaňúr, 2021, “Observations of the December 14, 2020, Total Solar Eclipse,” AAS meeting, January, paper 405.02, 1/14/2021.

Prominences at the solar limb by Verónica Espino, director of the Planetario Galileo Galilei, Buenos Aires, from El Condor near Las Grutas, Argentina

A composite of the chromosphere and both diamond rings, as seen from Valcheta by Guillermo Abramson
Física Estadística e Interdisciplinaria – Centro Atómico Bariloche / Instituto Balseiro
http://fisica.cab.cnea.gov.ar/estadistica/abramson
http://guillermoabramson.blogspot.com

2020, Argentina/Chile

Our team at Púcon, Chile:

Christian Lockwood ’20, Janet Boris, Theo Boris, Peter Boris, Xavier Jubier, Thierry Legault, Michael Thomas Roman (collaborating also with Marcos Peñaloza-Murillo, Universitad de los Andes, Venezuela, and Visiting Research Scientist at Williams College). Collaborating with Patricio Rojo of U. Chile (who observed from Gorbea) and Thomas Puzia of the Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (who worked from the Verricca volcano national park). Assisted with arrangements to enter and to travel around in Chile by Elizabeth Isaman (U.S. Embassy, Santiago). Accompanied by documentary filmmakers Matthew Taylor and Michelle Taylor.

Left in the U.S.: Jay Pasachoff at Williams College and Michael Person at MIT with the coronal-oscillation experiment

Pasachoff lectured via Zoom from the U.S. first, on December 9, at the International Astronomical Union Symposium 367, rescheduled from Bariloche to Zoom, and then the Golden Webinar of the Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (https://www.uc.cl/en/news/jay-m-pasachoff-explains-everything-about-eclipses-in-the-next-golden-webinar-in-astrophysics/).

Press release by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center: a fade in and out between the predictions by Predictive Science Inc of San Diego, CA, by Jon Linker, Ron Caplan, Pete Riley, and Cooper Downes compared with the composite image: Jay Pasachoff, Andreas Möller, Patricio Rojo, Verónica Espino, et al./Williams College Expedition (Christian Lockwood, David Sliski, Alan Sliski, Theo Boris, Xavier Jubier, Thierry Legault)/NSF AGS/computer composite by Wendy Carlos.

Eclipse Comet Press Release

Jay Pasachoff, Andreas Möller, Patricio Rojo, Verónica Espino, et al./Williams College Expedition (Christian Lockwood, David Sliski, Alan Sliski, Theo Boris, Xavier Jubier, Thierry Legault, Thomas Puzia)/NSF AGS/computer composite by Wendy Carlos with images from Chile and Argentina. © 2020. All rights reserved

Eclipse prediction — https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/scientists-use-nasa-data-predict-appearance-corona-dec-14-total-solar-eclipse

Eclipse comet — https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/recently-discovered-comet-seen-during-2020-total-solar-eclipse-SOHO

Larry Stevens’s website from Fortin Nogueira, Neuquen, Argentina https://pbase.com/photographerlarry/tse2020

Largely cloudy across Chile and Argentina, but clearing especially at Piedras del Aguila, Argentina

Prominence images from Verónica Espino, director of the Planetario Galileo Galilei, Buenos Aires

A pair of images through clouds from Gorbea, Chile, by Patricio Rojo

Note about eclipse flights: Two Cessna Citations flew over the Pacific. On board tail number CC-ASH were Alson Wong, Bob Stephens & Tim Todd [travel agent] (US) Moshe Bain (Brazil), and Agustin Landeta (Chile – handled local arrangements for Tim Todd). They flew at 33,000 ft. On tail number CC-DDZ were John Beattie, Craig Small, Jordan Sutton & Ken Schwartz (US). Patrick Poitevin and Michael Gill (UK), at 35,500 ft.

Comet C/2020 X3 (SOHO)

[SOHO-4108]

The comet, is named/numbered courtesy of Karl Battams, Solar and Heliospheric Physics Branch, US Naval Research Laboratory, with orbit discussed with the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: Bill Gray, Dan Green, Federica Spoto/Matt Holman. It was spotted on a SoHO LASCO/C2-coronagraph image by Worachate Boonplod, one of the citizen scientists known as SOHO comet hunters. It also shows on a COR-2 image from NASA’s STEREO-A COR-2 coronagraph.

Eclipse comet — https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/recently-discovered-comet-seen-during-2020-total-solar-eclipse-SOHO

Eclipse prediction — https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/scientists-use-nasa-data-predict-appearance-corona-dec-14-total-solar-eclipse

Note: The only other SOHO comet discovered during an eclipse was in 2008

Article by Ed Cliver about the 1893 “eclipse comet”: “Was the Eclipse Comet of 1893 a Disconnected Coronal Mass Ejection?”

Click to Activate GIFS:

*Eclipse Comet SOHO-4108 on images composited from Andreas Möller’s originals from Piedras del Aguila, Argentina.*

Minor Planet Electronic Circular 2020-Y19 MPEC

Pinhole camera image from Santiago by Elizabeth Isaman, U.S. Embassy

Dr. Guillermo Abramson
Física Estadística e Interdisciplinaria – Centro Atómico Bariloche / Instituto Balseiro
http://fisica.cab.cnea.gov.ar/estadistica/abramson
http://guillermoabramson.blogspot.com

BEFORE THE ECLIPSE

Forbes article: Discouraging about getting to December’s eclipse

JMP’s eclipse research receives major support from grant AGS-903500 from the Solar Terrestrial Program, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division, U.S. National Science Foundation. Student participation will be enhanced by the Freeman Foote Expeditionary Fund, Williams College.