Solar eclipse 1954

[Veejay]

Does anyone remember the total eclipse of the sun on 30 June 1954? I was in my final year at Heber Road School (as it was then called) and our science teacher, Mr Funnel, took us into the playground with a telescope that could project the image onto a card. We were told that we shouldn?t look directly at the sun since we could be blinded by the light around the darkened disc. Some of the more daring pupils did venture to look at the sun but only through smoked glass. The first place on earth where the total eclipse was visible was Nebraska, USA. Over the next three hours, the moon?s shadow swept eastwards, passing over the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and finally to India. This was the first total eclipse visible in Britain since 1927 and many people didn?t understand what was happening. I remember how eerie it was to me as a child when the sun was slowly ?eaten? by the moon?s shadow from one side until it was totally obscured and then how it re-emerged from the opposite side. As it gradually grew darker and colder, it became very quiet as birds stopped singing, believing it was night time, and returned to their nests. The eclipse wasn?t quite total in East Dulwich, as totality occurred over the Shetland Islands, but it made a lasting impression on a 10-year old girl (who later became a scientist herself!)

[ibilly99]

Is this for real Mr Funnel the science taecher my arse !

[Veejay]

Yes it is,ibilly99. The Headmaster was Mr Heester at the time.

[ibilly99]

Did he join the school at Easter by any chance ?

[Veejay]

I thought I was entering into a serious discussion on this forum. Clearly I was mistaken! I'm disappointed.

[ibilly99]

It's only me - there are wiser and saner souls who will no doubt take part.

[Veejay]

I shall look forward to hearing from them!

[ibilly99]

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle1951/SE1954Jun30Tgoogle.html

[Salsaboy]

Don't hold your breath.

Veejay Wrote:

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> I shall look forward to hearing from them!

[Veejay]

Surely someone on this forum was around in 1954! The link ibilly99 gave is an interesting starting point. Somebody out there must remember it!

[Huguenot]

Computedshorty was around in the 20s. Maybe.

[DulwichFox]

I was around in 1954...

I was 2 years old.

Don't remember it..

Fox

[ibilly99]

You are a dying breed I'm afraid - did you have a music teacher called Mr Oboe by any chance ?

[DulwichFox]

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4736894140941175&id=0ced88e4d0e7e8b9d4a6a6d576fe0cda&index=newexp

[ibilly99]

Mr Veejay - I hope you don't take this the wrong way but I suspect this might be a wind up of a clever and sophisticated variety - what does Mr Dick think about this ?

[Veejay]

I am deadly serious, ibilly99,and I am not MR Veejay. I am a 68-year old WOMAN who, after leaving school, took a chemistry degree and became a research worker, then a science teacher, a college vice principal, an A-level examiner and a school inspector. Now, in retirement, I work freelance as an education consultant. I am researching my past to provide some information for my grandchildren's history projects and I am disappointed that no-one is able to share my memories with me. Have you looked at my post on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee? By the way, I don't recall a teacher called Mr Oboe. Mr Musgrave was the music teacher and I was in Mr Hatton's class in my final year at Heber Road. I wonder whether these names will trigger anyone's memory.

[Veejay]

Perhaps the people on this section of the forum are all too young to be my contemporaries. I had more success with my posts on the thread 'Blasts from the past' regarding my home in Underhill Road. A helpful link gave me a map of my house as it was in 1954! Maybe some of you have parents or grandparents who were at Heber Road School in the 40s and 50s. I have managed to contact two of my ex-classmates on 'Friends Reunited' and they remember the teachers I have mentioned in my posts.

[ibilly99]

Sorry it was the Mr Funnel as a chemistry teacher that got my suspicions going that this could be a hackneyed poster playing games with fictious tall tales. Will stand down with my sardonic remarks and hope somebody somewhere can help you on your quest for knowledge.

http://images.wikia.com/muppet/images/0/05/Beaker.jpg

[Ho Ho Tai]

Hello, All -

I hope you don't mind someone from Across The Pond butting into your forum. I was on-line, searching out something which triggered a memory of that eclipse. I decided to enter it as a search term and wound up in your forum.

Yes, as I approach 75 y.o., I am PLENTY old enough to remember it. I was a high school jr. at the time in Duluth, MN. I was very much into astronomy then and had a pal (Richard) who was equally into photography - in fact, was the official photographer for our school. It was a good fit. I had a nice, solid 3" f/15 refractor and a tiny SLR which I fitted to the prime focus. I didn't have a drive so was limited to shooting bright objects. (Incidentally, I still have this scope and find it useful to amuse the grand kids.)

Dick and I were aware of the approaching eclipse several years earlier. The city of Minneapolis, some 150 miles to the south, was very near mid path. We decided to mount an expedition to the Big City. We made all sorts of careful preparations. I had a solar diagonal which diverted about 96% of the light and reflected the rest through a heavy filter. (This is a very safe way to go. If anything fails, nearly all the light spills out the back and the rest is not enough to damage sight if you back off fast enough.) We practiced exposures on various kinds of film by shooting endless pictures of sunspots.

A week before the event, we were checking weather very carefully and figured we had a good chance. We hung around with a science prof. at a near-by college who, of course, had plans for the eclipse also. He had seen several before, but this was a first for us. He advised us to leave all of our telescopes and cameras at home and just go down and enjoy it. Humpf! How could he say a thing like that? We packed up our gear anyway and headed down the day before. We had picked out a nice observing site on a golf course with a clear eastern view. The sun would rise partially eclipsed with mid-totality occurring when the sun was about 5 deg. above the horizon.

The morning of the eclipse dawned bright and clear - as nice a day as we get in Minnesota. We raced for the golf course a good hour before sunrise, set up our gear and waited . . . and waited . . . and finally, there it was, rising as a fat crescent. We started winding off the shots, being careful to save enough film for mid-eclipse. Then things started happening fast, just as in the textbooks. The diamond ring effect, the shadow bands moving over the open golf course and finally . . . TOTALITY!

My god, what an awesome sight! I think we caught a bit of buck fever at that point, shooting between glimpses at the real thing. I think someone (probably me) kicked one leg of the telescope tripod and we had to line it up again. Luckily, this was a long-duration eclipse (a bit like my post, eh?) and we had time. But finally, we had the wisdom to take our mentor's advice, abandon the scope, and just take it all in. When the sun 'finally' broke out on the other side, it was very obvious to us that we had experienced magic - perhaps becoming one, briefly, with 'primitive' ancestors who had their own explanations for what was happening. It felt like there should be some closing music, and credits rolling across the screen of the sky. The Producer, the Director, the Gaffer? All the same (if that is where your head is at.)

With a whole day remaining to reflect on the experience, we started by having breakfast at Rick's uncles's house, where we had stayed the night before. I don't think his uncle had even bothered to get out of bed to see it. Then we borrowed uncle's golf clubs and went back to the golf course. Richard was a fine golfer. I had never held a club in my hand before. I managed a 56 for five holes and decided that I had better find another sport. I never held a club in my hand again.

Many years later, married and with two young boys, we debated flying to Winnipeg, Canada to view another solar eclipse. The weather was dicey, but we decided to go and jumped on a plane at 10 pm the night before. We did manage to see it - the only one my sons have ever seen (both in their forties now) but it was not nearly as spectacular as that of 1954.

I think that the main memory my kids took away from it was the indoor rooftop swimming pool at the hotel.

Thanks for 'listening' folks. It was fun resurrecting this old memory.

Ho Ho Tai

[geneie]

I remember the eclipse, only vaguely, as I'm a little bit younger. I was also at Heber, as were my sister and brothers before me, and can assure all of you doubters on here that Mr Funnel was indeed the science teacher and Mr Heester the head (we thought we were terribly witty calling him Easter Egg behind his back, groan). The music teacher was Mr Hatton and my teacher for the final two years there was Mrs Sanderson.

[Veejay]

Thanks for confirming the names of the teachers at Heber, geneie. Some of those on this forum thought I was having them on. Mr Hatton was my class teacher and he used to throw board rubbers at anyone misbehaving!