# " PHOTOGRAPHING THE SOLAR ECLIPSE " 1966 AERIAL ASTRONOMY SURVEY BOEING NC-135 OBSERVATORY 69674

This late 1960s documentary recaps the 1966 solar eclipse expedition off the coast of Brazil and Argentina by members of the Atomic Energy Commission and scientists of the University of California’s Los Alamos, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, and the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory. The mission also featured a new innovative hydraulic tracking system used on several of the telescopes. The film opens with telescope footage of the Sun, including the solar corona, and photographs of the solar corona during a solar eclipse. Graphics are used to show the elements of the coronal spectrum—scattered illumination of dust and bright emission lines of highly charged atoms of iron (01:23). Graphics are then used to show the molecular development of charged iron atoms at various stages of atomization. Viewers see two people standing in front the sign and building for the Los Alamos, NM Scientific Laboratory of the University of California (03:42). NC-135 aircraft sit on an air strip, which are used for conducting research during solar eclipses. Two scientists in the Los Alamos laboratory work on the “Rube Goldberg” telescope used for measuring corona light (04:59). An illumination graph registers light intensity. The film uses illustrations to show the construction of a telescope used to measure emission lines of the solar corona. Viewers see a graph showing the recording of corona light intensity (07:28). The two men connect wires to the telescope’s photoelectric interferometer…

- Kind: Film
- By: PeriscopeFilm
- Genres: Space, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/69674-photographing-the-solar-eclipse-vwr)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/69674-photographing-the-solar-eclipse-vwr?play=1)