Frank's Comments on the Above Eclipse Photo

Here is a good picture for your web site that was in the collection I had acquired, perhaps because of my own astronomical interest. There is a caption on the back that says, "#9 Eclipse Kids 2 Cal." Based on the assumption that it was taken during a partial solar eclipse in St. Louis, I used some astronomical software I have to try to date the photo. Two options are:

7/20/63 at 3:40pm
5/9/67 at 8:30am

My guess is that it is the first one, assuming it is. My father is holding Thad, and he would have been 5 years old, which looks about right. Can you tell from the picture and the background whether the telescope is aimed at the morning sun or the afternoon sun? It seems improbable that that crowd could have gathered and looked so awake (well, most of them) at 8:30am, so it must be 7/20/63 at 3:40pm. I would have been 2 years old, so I was perhaps with my mother viewing from a remote site.

The angle of the telescope measured directly from the picture is 35 degrees, which agrees well with the altitude at peak totality of 40 degrees. Maximum totality was 67%, which is a pretty good eclipse. If the telescope is truly square to the camera and really is at 35 degrees, then the picture was taken at 4:10pm.

IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center -- Yorktown, NY

Frank is a Research Staff Member in the Computational Biology Center at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. He is currently involved in molecular dynamics algorithms and analysis related to scalable systems. Over the years he has been involved in a range of research areas, including nonlinear optics, magnetic storage, and scientific visualization.