Negative - Glass

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Item MM 30311 Glass Negative - Solar Eclipse Expedition, Goondiwindi, Queensland, Sep 1922

Summary

Astronomer (Thomas Parnell?) using a heliostat in a temporary observatory, during Melbourne Observatory's solar eclipse expedition to Goondiwindi, Queenland, September 1922.

The purpose of the expedition was to test Einstein's general theory of relativity. Einstein's theory predicted that the light travelling to us from stars should bend as it passed the Sun, due to the curvature in space-time created by the massive object. A solar eclipse expedition in 1919 had found such a bending of the light, but in 1922 it was still important to undertake confirming observations. The Goondiwindi expedition was not very successful, as they were unable to take sufficiently precise photographs to test the theory.

The US Lick Observatory's group at Wallal, Western Australia, succeeded in making observations that confirmed Einstein's theory.