Solar Eclipse Resources at NBLA: Oral Histories

"I was in chemistry, until into my junior year. I almost had completed a major in chemistry. But Miss [Anne Sewell] Young's introductory astronomy, plus the total eclipse of January 24, 1925, locked me into astronomy for the rest of my life."

"I was greatly interested in the solar eclipse in Louisville in January 1925.... I got out our box camera and took pictures of it. I still have them in the old family album somewhere."

"Perhaps the clincher was the total eclipse of June 8, 1918... It made a tremendous impression on me because this phenomenon was discussed in the family as an item of great significance..... The solar eclipse, the phenomenon of the tides which exhibited the influence of the moon attracting the seas of the earth, were two items that provided a great inspiration."

"In one of my lessons, I was trying to explain solar eclipses. I did it the usual physics way: diagrammed them on the board, with the lines and so on. It was simply obvious that the kids just had no idea what I was talking about, and it was terribly frustrating. So, I said, okay, fine. I told them, “Please go and get a whole bunch of black sheets of paper from the office, and tape. And someone should get a flashlight, a football, and a tennis ball.” And then, I wanted them to get boxes of chalk. So, they went off to get boxes of chalk. I asked them, “Okay. I want you all to grind all the chalk into powder.” So, the kids grind the chalk into powder and I had them cover all the windows with black paper and tape. We had the soccer ball as the Earth, and the Moon was a tennis ball, and then the flashlight. And I said, “Okay, let’s turn off the lights. What I want you to do: I’ll count to three, and when I count to three, I want you to throw the chalk dust up into the air. One, two, three.” And then the lights went out and they saw this beautiful, conical shadow hitting the soccer ball, and they immediately understood how this thing worked. And so, yeah, I just sort of discovered that this is what you need to do. You need to have something that’s vivid and engaging, not just lines on the blackboard. I discovered that I enjoy explaining things to people. Of course, I can imagine the cleaners were not very happy with me, but the kids obviously learned something."

“The early memories from Cambridge include being taken on a special train to see the eclipse in 1925, I think, and also taking a special train to see an eclipse in 1926. So I saw two solar eclipses, both were in my memory. Those were the days when they ran special trains to things like that. Then I saw the total eclipse of August 31, 1932, at that time in New Hampshire. So by the time I was 13 or something, I’d seen three total solar eclipses, and I haven’t seen one since. It rained in Locarno in 1963, and that’s the only other one I tried to go to.”

Allen became an eclipse chaser in the 1970s after her retirement, observing and taking data on over half a dozen eclipses.

"There was this marvelous total eclipse of 1925, that I remember as though it were now, and which was one of the most emotionally moving and thrilling experiences I have ever had."

[Interviewer:] "How did you first become interested in astronomy?"... [Mustel:] "It was the day of a partial solar eclipse, 29th of June [1927], and I listened to a lecture given by Professor Mikhaylov, Director of the Pulkova Observatory (but earlier he lived in Moscow) about this solar eclipse. He told that there is a society of amateurs of astronomy in Moscow, and whoever wishes to work in this society, please....enter the society. And I did this. I was very happy in this society. It was a very interesting society"

"I read a Dutch translation of astronomical books written by the Dutch. It was written by Oudman. Now, he explained very beautifully about solar eclipses. Then I became very much interested. And then I entered senior high school. There I got a teacher who was very influential, very influential in teaching physics, and another teacher in teaching cosmography. At that time they did not call it astronomy, but cosmography."