Modern Eddington Experiment
The Modern Eddington Experiment (MEE) started in 2017 with the eclipse that passed through the USA by utilizing modern telescopes and digital CCD cameras to acquire deflected stars. There were two successful parties Berry/Dittrich (and four students) in Oregon and Don Bruns in Wyoming. The success that Don Bruns obtained gave him the Chambliss Astronomy Award. The Berry/Dittrich execution was not as successful but did achieve determination of the Einstein Coefficient, which demonstrated that the experiment is possible with students. The MEE2024 project was organized by Dittrich, and there were a total of thirteen telescope camera stations at three locations across the path of the April 8 eclipse. The seven stations in Texas were clouded out, but the six stations in central Mexico had modest success, despite the clouds from a subtropical jet stream. They captured several hundred stars on thousands of plates with about 500 GB data in the 4.5 minutes of totality. The team of professors, amateur astronomers and 35 students from several colleges once again proved that this experiment is very hard to perform but with planning, training, calibrations and practicing procedures during totality better results than ever before can be achieved. Students in greater numbers once again successfully determined the Einstein Coefficient. This second success beckons the call for an even greater execution for the August 2, 2027 eclipse. This talk focuses on the past history of the experiment, the performance of MEE2024 and recruiting teams for MEE2027 in North Africa.
About William A. (TOBY) Dittrich
William A. (TOBY) Dittrich graduated from Western Washington University in 1968 with a BS in physics. He moved onto graduate studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, and worked at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) and was also a teaching assistant in the physics department. He was a PhD candidate and received an MS in Physics in 1973. He began a forty year relationship with The Juneau Icefield Research Program studying the glaciers and this led to a Fulbright Scholarship in Physics in England in 1972. To further his interest in the production of power in outer space he returned to graduate school in 1983 at the University of Washington receiving an MS in Aeronautical/ Astronautical Engineering. His lifelong interest in flying led to his completion of the MultiEngine, Single engine, instrument flight instructor ratings. He has taught physics at multiple colleges including for 35 years at PCC where he just this month retired. His interest in eclipses began in 1991 when he flew members of RCA to LaPaz Mexico for the 1991 total solar eclipse. In 2016 he became interested in performing the Eddington Experiment with students in 2017, and at an RCA meeting met Richard Berry. Together they performed the MEE2017 successfully, leading to the repeat in MEE2024. Plans are now underway for MEE2027.
Toby is an author, an inventor, a nationally known physics professor, and hopefully the leader of a team in 2027 which will successfully curve fit and verify the Einstein Law of Photon Deflection for the first time during the 2027 total solar eclipse.
