Fig.1 Map from GSFC/NASA
A total solar eclipse will be observed on Aug.11, 1999 in Europe from Great Britain to Turkey and to West Asia. This eclipse will be the last one for the 20th century and will attract people because the shadow of the moon will pass through densely populated areas.
As you know a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. But the area where people can see it is very small so it is in actually a rare sight.
Fig.1 Map from GSFC/NASA
Therefore some efforts were made to carry out live coverage of total solar eclipses as the progress of tele- communication and the Internet spread. Live Eclipse'97 committee made a live event in 1997 for the eclipse which was seen in Mongolia and Siberia and hit a new access record. Also some of this project's member participated in the live event for the eclipse from Venezuela in 1998 and a tremendous access number was recorded.
This time Eclipse Live 1999 Planning and Preparation Committee plan to send images from several points in Europe via a communication satellite and the Internet to Japan and to the world so that people can see multiple images at the same time.
Fig.2 Map from the NASA SDAC Eclipse Information
Images will be captured in Great Britain, France, Germany and Hungary and people will be able to see multiple images at the same time.
The live coverage will be made under the project "Satellite Application Experiments" which is carried out by the Ministry of Telecommunications of Japan. These images will be provided to TV companies and other bodies for free and also to the Internet.
This project will be carried out with the cooperation of educational organizations in Europe.
We will offer this opportunity to Planetaria and other facilities so that many people can participate in the event.
Fig.3 Network System
Fig.4 Broadcast throgh the Internet
* Period WWW pages are open
Mar.1, 1999 to Nov.30, 1999 (9 months)
* Duration of the live broadcast
19:10 to 20:20(JST) on Wed., Aug.11,1999(70min.)
| WWW pages | Total: 9.45Million PV |
| Average: 35 thousand PV/day | |
| Access on the eclipse day | 3.5 Million PV/24hrs. |
| Access for the stream live | 10 Thousand (Max simultaneous access capacity is 200) |
