2
The Canarian press made much of the eclipse, publishing features days
before and after the event, complete with photographs of previous eclipses
and the arrival of planeloads of scientific equipment. The islanders have not
forgotten that extraordinary celestial novelty.
It is useful to recall some of the events that took place back then. The first
two lunar probes were launched by the USSR in that year. The second of
these, Lunik 2, landed on the lunar surface precisely two days before
Khrushchev began his visit to the United States. In January, the bearded army
of Fidel Castro entered victorious into Havana. In December US President,
General Eisenhower, paid a visit to General Franco and was cheered in the
streets of Madrid by more than a million Spaniards. Severo Ochoa received
the Nobel Prize for Medicine in that same year.
As a consequence of the Second World War, by mid-century scientific and
technological advances had produced powerful and precise scientific instruments that greatly increased our observing capacity of both the macro- and
microcosmos. Astronomers were now confronted with a situation in which
the resolving power of their modern telescopes (their ability to discern two
narrowly separated celestial bodies) was limited by the atmosphere in which
the telescopes were immersed. It was now quite evident that traditional observatories (often located in national capitals or in the home town of some
patron) failed to meet the conditions demanded by modern astronomy (astrophysics). Not even Mount Palomar, where the Americans had just located
their 5-metre reflector, the leviathan of its time, could fulfil these requirements.
The new telescopes had to be set up in very special locations with clear,
transparent, and stable atmospheres. For this reason, the most developed
countries set about searching worldwide for such rare and exclusive sites.
Obviously, a good site would have to be cloudless for most of the year and
possess a transparent atmosphere. Such conditions prevail in many parts of
the planet but are not, of themselves, sufficient. The goal is to identify a site
where the upper masses of air are stable enough for celestial objects to be
observed as if there were no atmosphere at all, as if the telescope were located
in space. Hence, present-day astronomical site prospection is centred on
parameters linked to atmospheric turbulence.
This can be understood simply if we explain that the beautiful twinkling of
the stars has the same origin as the shimmering of distant objects when viewed
above a heated road or behind the flames of a bonfire. Rays of light, which
would normally reach our eyes or a telescope mirror in straight parallel lines,
are bent when passing through moving bubbles of hot air of a refractive index
different from that of cool air.
F. Sánchez
The Canarian press made much of the eclipse, publishing features days
before and after the event, complete with photographs of previous eclipses
and the arrival of planeloads of scientific equipment. The islanders have not
forgotten that extraordinary celestial novelty.
It is useful to recall some of the events that took place back then. The first
two lunar probes were launched by the USSR in that year. The second of
these, Lunik 2, landed on the lunar surface precisely two days before
Khrushchev began his visit to the United States. In January, the bearded army
of Fidel Castro entered victorious into Havana. In December US President,
General Eisenhower, paid a visit to General Franco and was cheered in the
streets of Madrid by more than a million Spaniards. Severo Ochoa received
the Nobel Prize for Medicine in that same year.
As a consequence of the Second World War, by mid-century scientific and
technological advances had produced powerful and precise scientific instruments that greatly increased our observing capacity of both the macro- and
microcosmos. Astronomers were now confronted with a situation in which
the resolving power of their modern telescopes (their ability to discern two
narrowly separated celestial bodies) was limited by the atmosphere in which
the telescopes were immersed. It was now quite evident that traditional observatories (often located in national capitals or in the home town of some
patron) failed to meet the conditions demanded by modern astronomy (astrophysics). Not even Mount Palomar, where the Americans had just located
their 5-metre reflector, the leviathan of its time, could fulfil these requirements.
The new telescopes had to be set up in very special locations with clear,
transparent, and stable atmospheres. For this reason, the most developed
countries set about searching worldwide for such rare and exclusive sites.
Obviously, a good site would have to be cloudless for most of the year and
possess a transparent atmosphere. Such conditions prevail in many parts of
the planet but are not, of themselves, sufficient. The goal is to identify a site
where the upper masses of air are stable enough for celestial objects to be
observed as if there were no atmosphere at all, as if the telescope were located
in space. Hence, present-day astronomical site prospection is centred on
parameters linked to atmospheric turbulence.
This can be understood simply if we explain that the beautiful twinkling of
the stars has the same origin as the shimmering of distant objects when viewed
above a heated road or behind the flames of a bonfire. Rays of light, which
would normally reach our eyes or a telescope mirror in straight parallel lines,
are bent when passing through moving bubbles of hot air of a refractive index
different from that of cool air.
F. Sánchez