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No Need for Alarm, It’s Only an Eclipse

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Part of the book series: Astronomers' Universe ((ASTRONOM))

Abstract

Such was the calm declaration of Professor Calculus, although about to be burnt at the stake, as the Andean landscape suddenly went dark in Prisoners of the Sun, one of the adventures of Tintin. On the morning of 30 June, as the Sun rose, already dented by the Moon, we were less composed than the celebrated savant with his pendulum, for any mishaps, no matter how small, might threaten the success of the whole venture (Fig. 5.1).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Op. Cit. note 29.

  2. 2.

    The sky above the rooftop

    Is so blue and calm!

    A tree above the rooftop

    Waves its palm.

  3. 3.

    The film is called Eclipse 73. See the bibliography. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHLyypLk-w and http://www.cerimes.fr/artciles/article_514/moment_771/plasma. See also the beautiful animated display of the 30th June flight and shadow trajectories at http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_19730630_Concorde001.html

  4. 4.

    Op. Cit. note 29.

  5. 5.

    Michel Rétif: Personal communication, 2013.

  6. 6.

    The quote comes from a research note, published by Gérard Francillon in 1974. The full analysis of the ethnological observations made in Ethiopia is given by Serge Tornay: Médecine du corps, médecine du cosmos: l’éclipse chez les Nyangatom. In: Soleil est mort: l’éclipse totale du 30 juin 1973, G. Francillon and P. Menget (eds.), pp. 201–243 (1979). See the bibliography.

  7. 7.

    Gérard Francillon in Note de recherche: Eclipse de soleil du 30 juin 1973 (1974), unpublished. The publication Soleil est mort (op. cit.) contains a much more detailed analysis.

  8. 8.

    Henri Perrier: Personal communication (2011).

  9. 9.

    Chad Press Agency, Daily Bulletin: InfoTchad, no. 2809, 2 July 1973 (roneoed). The title is a play on words, Le Canard enchainé being a well known satirical newspaper in France (the word ‘canard’ is slang for a newspaper).

  10. 10.

    http://www.pionnair-ge.com/spip1/spip.php?article441

  11. 11.

    A. Turcat: Concorde: essais et batailles, pp. 265–266. See the bibliography.

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Léna, P. (2015). No Need for Alarm, It’s Only an Eclipse. In: Racing the Moon’s Shadow with Concorde 001. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21729-1_5

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