Lancelin: Total Solar Eclipse

Total eclipse observed at Hamelin Bay;
350 Km south of Lancelin: Photo - Mick Wolf

Original launcher and full scale model of rocket at Bullcreek Aviation Museum: Photo – Kerrie Dougherty

In June 1974 a total solar eclipse occurred over the south-west corner of Western Australia. A team of US scientists and engineers from Sandia Laboratories arrived in Lancelin 125 km north of Perth with a van, a tracking antenna, two launch pedestals and two 2-stage Terrier-Sandhawk rockets to launch their experiments during the total eclipse.

These rockets carried a telemetry package and a photo data acquisition module to record the Sun’s coronal temperature distribution by observing the Lyman-alpha line width. This could only be done for the short time the rockets were above the Earth’s atmosphere.

The rockets were successfully launched in view of a small group of spectators at 13.11 West Australian time and reached a height of 320 km. A little while later the telemetry technicians, on a recovery boat, , winched the research packages out of the sea off the Lancelin coast.

A display of the launcher and a ‘dummy’ rocket can be seen at the Bullcreek Aviation Museum, near Perth.

Umbra (total shadow) dark grey arc; penumbra (partial shadow) mid grey area:
Image - HM Nautical Almanac Office

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