We report on early results from a suite of instruments for imaging and spectra we deployed to Salem, Oregon, for 2 min of totality at the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse. Our instruments included refracting telescopes and telephoto lenses for use with CCD detectors and DSLR cameras, narrow-band filters at the wavelengths of coronal emission lines ([Fe XIV] 530.3 nm and [Fe X] 637.4 nm), and spectrographs. We also monitored the effect of the eclipse penumbra and umbra on the terrestrial atmosphere. The total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, was the first whose totality crossed only United States territory since the origin of the country, and the first to cross the Continental United States from coast to coast in 99 years. As a result, major campaigns of scientific research and of outreach were carried out.
We observed the 2 July 2019 total solar eclipse with a variety of imaging and spectroscopic instruments recording from three sites in mainland Chile: on the centerline at La Higuera, from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and from La Serena, as well as from a chartered flight at peak totality in mid-Pacific. Our spectroscopy monitored Fe X, Fe XIV, and Ar X lines, and we imaged Ar X with a Lyot filter adjusted from its original H-alpha bandpass. Our composite imaging has been compared with predictions based on modeling using magnetic-field measurements from the pre-eclipse month. Our time-differenced sites will be used to measure motions in coronal streamers.
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