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R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
Fortunately for Einstein, three years after his paper appeared in Annalen
der Physik, Nature cooperated with him by providing on 29th May, 1919 one
of the longest total solar eclipses of the 20th Century. A British astronomer,
Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the few scientists outside the German-speaking
world familiar with Einstein’s work, led expeditions to the tropics of Brazil
and to the island of Principe, off the west coast of Africa, to observe the
eclipse, an image of which is shown in Fig. 7.3. The stars of the Hyades cluster
were near the solar limb at this time, and provided a perfect opportunity to
test the theory of General Relativity.
Eddington’s analysis of the results confirmed that the stars were displaced
from their usual positions by the amount predicted by Einstein. When the
New York Times published the news, Einstein’s reputation soared, and he
became an international celebrity. A headline from the New York Times,
November 10, 1919 is shown in Fig. 7.4.
One should not gain the impression that the bending of light predicted by
General Relativity is something anyone can observe in their backyard with
a pair of binoculars. The deflection of the stars of the Hyades cluster was
predicted to be 1.75 arc seconds. This is equivalent to the angle subtended by
Fig. 7.3 Solar eclipse, 29th May 1919, observed by Sir Arthur Eddington, and
providing the first evidence for Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. The horizontal bars to the top-right of the image indicate the position of stars. Image,
public domain due to age (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1919_eclipse_pos
itive.jpg (accessed 2020/05/26))
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
Fortunately for Einstein, three years after his paper appeared in Annalen
der Physik, Nature cooperated with him by providing on 29th May, 1919 one
of the longest total solar eclipses of the 20th Century. A British astronomer,
Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the few scientists outside the German-speaking
world familiar with Einstein’s work, led expeditions to the tropics of Brazil
and to the island of Principe, off the west coast of Africa, to observe the
eclipse, an image of which is shown in Fig. 7.3. The stars of the Hyades cluster
were near the solar limb at this time, and provided a perfect opportunity to
test the theory of General Relativity.
Eddington’s analysis of the results confirmed that the stars were displaced
from their usual positions by the amount predicted by Einstein. When the
New York Times published the news, Einstein’s reputation soared, and he
became an international celebrity. A headline from the New York Times,
November 10, 1919 is shown in Fig. 7.4.
One should not gain the impression that the bending of light predicted by
General Relativity is something anyone can observe in their backyard with
a pair of binoculars. The deflection of the stars of the Hyades cluster was
predicted to be 1.75 arc seconds. This is equivalent to the angle subtended by
Fig. 7.3 Solar eclipse, 29th May 1919, observed by Sir Arthur Eddington, and
providing the first evidence for Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. The horizontal bars to the top-right of the image indicate the position of stars. Image,
public domain due to age (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1919_eclipse_pos
itive.jpg (accessed 2020/05/26))