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| Preface to the First Edition | View |
| Preface to the Second Edition | View |
| Journals of the Society | View |
| In the Beginning | View |
| Society Members | View |
| In Quest of an Observatory | View |
| Public Displays | View |
| The Blackwell Donation | View |
| The Site At Last | View |
| Building the Observatory | View |
| The New World of the Zeiss | View |
| People and Events | View |
| The Matauri Bay Solar Eclipse | View |
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The Matauri Bay Solar Eclipse
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This total eclipse of May 31, 1965, visible from New Zealand only from the Northland coast was the major observing event of the Society's recent history. Teams went up by land to set up tents or caravans at Matauri Bay and others went by air on chartered planes to view it from on high-because totality was to take place soon after sunrise.
The Matauri Bay eclipse was the most significant event that Mr Warner has observed.
L A C Warner
It was raining the night before, and no-one gave us a hope for the morning.
Mr Michie, who had been to many eclipse observations during the years, was in charge of the site. It was lent by a farmer in that area and he even laid down concrete sites for the telescopes to go on. I had a short focus 10 inch f4 astrograph and a 2 1/2 inch, 60 mm refractor. Mr Hargreaves and I worked these. We even tried infra-red plates and I was optimistic that we might be able to record comets close to the Sun when it was eclipsed.
But ten minutes before eclipse time all the clouds cleared away and the Sun was about 10 degrees above the horizon when totality occurred. It is the most wonderful sight you can ever see... the rosy red chromosphere around the limb... the great spurts of prominences... an incredible sight. It really stunned me for the moment and I didn't get on with the job of taking photographs. It was terrific. Most people enjoyed it immensely and one of the most enjoyable things about it was that after the eclipse Dr Corban came along with several bottles of his brothers' firm's products.
MARVELLED AT IT
H O Williams
I was down about a mile from the main party which was on the cliff top above Matauri Bay. I had taken the caravan up and got up quite early in the morning. When I took the camera out, the lens fogged up immediately, until I waved it over the gas stove in the caravan for a bit.
One thing I noticed, and I don't know why I didn't take action on it, was a beautiful example of the zodiacal night. A marvellous example of it, it came up in a beautiful cone, right out at sea , with a wide base. I stood and looked at it, watched and marvelled at it. It was the first time I had seen it quite as good as that. And I had a Retinette camera with colour in it lying on the sofa in the caravan beside me, a tripod and everything, and never thought to take a picture of it. You don't only get this at an eclipse, you can get it if conditions are right at sunrise and sunset. And it is better nearer the equator and the poles.
After that I set up and exposed away at the eclipse as fast as I could. Prior to this I had gone up Mt Eden at sunset and taken a few trial runs to get the exposure somewhere right. I had a wind up 35 mm camera and the pictures came out alright. (These photos were the best of the expedition, some of the other observers being so excited they tended to forget what they had come for.)
CORONA EFFECTS
C Michie
When the Matauri Bay eclipse was coming up I felt the conditions were going to be very severe because we were not going to have much altitude for the sun. Totality occurred very soon after sunrise and I knew that the weather conditions were very uncertain, too.
But I was anxious to do what I could in the way of photographing the eclipse and also use an improved rotating sector. Most of the benefit of the rotating sector was completely spoiled because the mist was quite dense, and I was surprised that we achieved anything at all.
I was particularly anxious to make as many observations as I could because, I had predicted following the discussion with Professor Mitchell and also following the 1937 eclipse, that the solar corona played a much more important part in solar radiation and its effects than had been hitherto realised.
SIGHT OF A LIFETIME
E J N Greager
The sun came up partially eclipsed. There was a bit of cloud over it but just above this was a clear bit of sky and the eclipse occurred right bang in the middle of this clear.
We were observing it through dark glasses and up to the moment of totality everybody was yelling. But at totality everything stopped except the shutters clicking, and the time signals. I was a timekeeper and when John Orr said "Now" that meant that he was opening his shutter and I had to count, 'one...two...three...' from my stop-watch and he would close and open his shutter again. He got a number of very good shots indeed.
But I had to look at the eclipse and I did. It is the sight of a lifetime. Seen with the naked eye, the colour is indescribable, The corona has a pear look about it but the prominences are red. I thought they might be perhaps the colour of the sun but no, they were red, and quite startlingly so.
WRETCHED BIRDS
L A C Warner
I had been asked to join in the broadcasting of the Matauri Bay eclipse and give a blow by blow account of it for the national and commercial network. We got there with all the telescopes pointing toward the predetermined point on the horizon looking like a lot of howitzers. Tony Riordan, an announcer from Whangarei, and I were on the ground and we were linked by radio with Merv Smith who was in an aeroplane circling around the top.
You know how the writers say that during totality even the birds and the animals seem to be over-awed and go quiet. I told Tony Riordan that this would probably happen but while he was telling the people that this was happening, the wretched birds went on singing just the same.
Merv Smith could see the right and left edges of the shadow of the moon so he could see the landscape lit up both sides of the cone of shadow. Looking straight at the sun at that time he said it was just like looking into a storm.
SHORTEST TWO MINUTES
R A McIntosh
As the planes neared the path of totality the thick clouds of a tropical depression centred a thousand miles to the east and directly in line with the sun, began to show along the horizon. Thus I was able to observe, as I had hoped to do, the green flash. But presently the bright crescent pushed its way above the cloud bank and excitement rose to a new peak.
We reached the central line with a minute to spare. The plane turned to remain on the central line and Bailey's Beads flashed out on the lower limb. The plane turned to give those on the starboard side a view and we were able to see the inner corona extending more than a solar diameter to the west, and coronal plumes at the south pole. The lunar disc was not black but grey, very light bright earthshine.
Totality was expected to last 2 minutes 14 seconds, so at the end of a minute the plane turned again to give those on the port side their opportunity and, all too soon, Bailey's Beads flashed out again on the upper limb and the eclipse was over-the shortest two minutes we had ever experienced.
The plane was now on its homeward course and we saw the dark pyramid of the moon's shadow racing away across the Pacific toward Manuae and the other eclipse parties.
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