Eclipse filmedIn 1930, the first U.S. motion picture of the 1.5 minute totality of an eclipse of the sun was taken from an airplane flying about 18,000 feet over at Honey Lake, California. The flight was sponsored by the U.S. Naval Observatory, and carried out by Lt. Leslie E. Gehres amd Chief Photographer J.M.F. Haase of the U.S. Navy. An attempt made during an earlier eclipse had been made by the same photographer on 10 Sep 1923, but was unsuccessful due to cloudy conditions. A U.S. Navy dirigible was first used to make a motion film of an eclipse on 24 Jan 1925. The dirigible was about 4,500 feet above a point almost 19 miles east of Monauk Point, New York, which it filmed the 2-min 5-sec eclipse. |
