Visibility of stars, halos, and rainbows during solar eclipses

Gunther P. Können; Claudia Hinz

doi:10.1364/AO.47.000H14

Applied Optics
Vol. 47,
Issue 34,
pp. H14-H24
(2008)
•https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.47.000H14

Visibility of stars, halos, and rainbows during solar eclipses

Gunther P. Können and Claudia Hinz

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Get PDF
Email
Share
Get Citation
Copy Citation Text
Gunther P. Können and Claudia Hinz, "Visibility of stars, halos, and rainbows during solar eclipses," Appl. Opt. 47, H14-H24 (2008)

Export Citation
- BibTex
- Endnote (RIS)
- HTML
- Plain Text
Citation alert
Save article

Abstract

The visibility of stars, planets, diffraction coronas, halos, and rainbows during the partial and total phases of a solar eclipse is studied. The limiting magnitude during various stages of the partial phase is presented. The sky radiance during totality with respect to noneclipse conditions is revisited and found to be typically $1 / 4000$ . The corresponding limiting magnitude is $+ 3.5$ . At totality, the signal-to-background ratio of diffraction coronas, halos, and rainbows has dropped by a factor of 250. It is found that diffraction coronas around the totally eclipsed Sun may nevertheless occur. Analyses of lunar halo observations during twilight indicate that bright halo displays may also persist during totality. Rainbows during totality seem impossible.

Full Article | PDF Article

More Like This

Subsuns and rainbows during solar eclipses

Gunther P. Können, Glenn Schneider, Evan H. Zucker, and Panu Lahtinen
Appl. Opt. 59(21) F1-F10 (2020)

Extended visual range during solar eclipses

Michael Vollmer and Joseph A. Shaw
Appl. Opt. 57(12) 3250-3259 (2018)

Sky radiance during a total solar eclipse: a theoretical model

Glenn E. Shaw
Appl. Opt. 17(2) 272-276 (1978)

Previous Article Next Article

References

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (8)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Tables (3)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article tables are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Eclipse Magnitude^a	Time till Totality	Obscuration^b	Brightness Sun^c	Stellar Magnitude Sun^d
0	$80 \min$ ^e	0	100%	$- 26.70$
0.1	$72 \min$	4%	97%	$- 26.67$
0.2	$64 \min$	11%	91%	$- 26.60$
0.3	$56 \min$	19%	82%	$- 26.49$
0.4	$48 \min$	29%	72%	$- 26.34$
0.5	$40 \min$	40%	60%	$- 26.14$
0.6	$32 \min$	51%	47%	$- 25.88$
0.7	$24 \min$	63%	34%	$- 25.52$
0.8	$16 \min$	76%	21%	$- 24.99$
0.85	$12 \min$	82%	15%	$- 24.60$
0.9	$8 \min$	88%	9%	$- 24.04$
0.95	$4 \min$	94.6%	3.5%	$- 23.05$
0.975	$2 \min$	97.6%	1.3%	$- 22.02$
0.985	$75 s$	98.7%	0.7%	$- 21.30$
0.995	$24 s$	99.7%^f	0.13%^f	$- 19.48$
0.998	$10 s$	99.93%^f	0.03%^f	$- 18.00$

Eclipse Magnitude	Obscuration	Time till Totality	Limiting Magnitude^a	Planets/Stars Visible
0	0%	$80 \min$	$- 3.5$	Venus
0.72	66%	$23 \min$	$- 2.5$
0.888	86.8%	$9 \min$	$- 1.5$	Jupiter, Sirius
0.954	95.3%	$3.7 \min$	$- 0.5$	Canopus, Mercury
0.980	98.2%	$97 s$	$+ 0.5$	α Cen, Arcturus, Vega, Rigel, Capella, Procyon, Saturn
0.986	98.9%	$65 s$	$+ 1.0$	Achenar, β Cen, Altair, Aldebaran, α Crucis, Antares, Betelgeuse
0.991	99.4%	$44 s$	$+ 1.5$	Spica, Pollux, Fomalhaut, Deneb, β Crucis, Regulus
Mid-totality^b	100%	—	$+ 3.5$	E.g., Alcyone in Pleiades cluster

Year (Eclipse Magnitude [43])	Solar Elevation	Wavelength	$I_{tot} / I_{98.7 %}$	$I_{tot} / I_{0 %}$ Reported	Observer, Remarks
1937 (1.075)	$30 °$	visible	0.024^a		Richtmyer [31]
1947 (1.056)	$40 °$	visible	0.035^a	$1 / 4000$	Richardson and Hulburt [37]
1952 (1.037)	$61 °$	visible	0.042^a		Batchelder et al. [36]
1963 (1.022)	$24 °$	$560 nm$	0.023^a		Sharp et al. [18]
		$520 nm$	0.033^a	$1 / 3500$
		$600 nm$	0.010^a
1966 (1.023)	$68 °$	$540 nm$	0.040	$1 / 2500$	Lloyd and Silverman [34]
1970 (1.041)	$37 °$	$430 nm$	0.032		Hall [44]
		$510 nm$	0.028
		$590 nm$	0.010
1970 (1.041)	$46 °$	$420 nm$	0.031	$1 / 7300$	Dandekar and Turtle [33]
		$560 nm$	0.024	$1 / 6400$
		$630 nm$	0.019	$1 / 5800$
1973 (1.072)	$37 °$	$400 nm$	0.034		Shaw [4], solar vertical, $90 °$ from the Sun
		midvisible	0.022^b
		$600 nm$	0.028	$1 / 7500$

Eclipse Magnitude^a	Time till Totality	Obscuration^b	Brightness Sun^c	Stellar Magnitude Sun^d
0	$80 \min$ ^e	0	100%	$- 26.70$
0.1	$72 \min$	4%	97%	$- 26.67$
0.2	$64 \min$	11%	91%	$- 26.60$
0.3	$56 \min$	19%	82%	$- 26.49$
0.4	$48 \min$	29%	72%	$- 26.34$
0.5	$40 \min$	40%	60%	$- 26.14$
0.6	$32 \min$	51%	47%	$- 25.88$
0.7	$24 \min$	63%	34%	$- 25.52$
0.8	$16 \min$	76%	21%	$- 24.99$
0.85	$12 \min$	82%	15%	$- 24.60$
0.9	$8 \min$	88%	9%	$- 24.04$
0.95	$4 \min$	94.6%	3.5%	$- 23.05$
0.975	$2 \min$	97.6%	1.3%	$- 22.02$
0.985	$75 s$	98.7%	0.7%	$- 21.30$
0.995	$24 s$	99.7%^f	0.13%^f	$- 19.48$
0.998	$10 s$	99.93%^f	0.03%^f	$- 18.00$

Eclipse Magnitude	Obscuration	Time till Totality	Limiting Magnitude^a	Planets/Stars Visible
0	0%	$80 \min$	$- 3.5$	Venus
0.72	66%	$23 \min$	$- 2.5$
0.888	86.8%	$9 \min$	$- 1.5$	Jupiter, Sirius
0.954	95.3%	$3.7 \min$	$- 0.5$	Canopus, Mercury
0.980	98.2%	$97 s$	$+ 0.5$	α Cen, Arcturus, Vega, Rigel, Capella, Procyon, Saturn
0.986	98.9%	$65 s$	$+ 1.0$	Achenar, β Cen, Altair, Aldebaran, α Crucis, Antares, Betelgeuse
0.991	99.4%	$44 s$	$+ 1.5$	Spica, Pollux, Fomalhaut, Deneb, β Crucis, Regulus
Mid-totality^b	100%	—	$+ 3.5$	E.g., Alcyone in Pleiades cluster

Abstract

References

Cited By

Figures (8)

Tables (3)

Metrics

Applied Optics

Login or Create Account