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The 2016 Solar Eclipse was happened on 9 April 2016 across Indonesia. This eclipse,

which totality phase occurred for one until three minutes over 14 provinces, has been draw

public attention as early as January and treated as a rare and great phenomenon. This situation

was handled as a chance for many institution associated with science and education to conduct

nation-wide public outreach effort regarding solar eclipse and its effect for everyday life. The

2016 East Kalimantan Solar Eclipse Expedition Team exist as one of those initiative, lead by

researcher of Bosscha Observatory and Astronomy Research Group of ITB. The team operates

across three municipality in East Kalimantan Province, which is Balikpapan City, Penajam

Paser Utara District (Penajam), dan Paser Distric (Tana Paser). The expedition carry four main

mission: encourage local government to conduct eclipse-related event to public, introducing

astronomy to public (especially high school students) through science competition and open

event, introducing and assisting public (especially high school) in observing the solar eclipse

with many methods, and conduct eclipse-related research from East Kalimantan.

INTRODUCTION

PUBLIC OUTREACH

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Our research concentrated mainly on two activities, astrometry and animal behavior

towards sudden darkness caused by eclipse. In regards of astrometry activity, our observation

conducted at Pantai Corong (1°24′12.4″ S, 116°39′14″ E), 1.5 m above sea level. Around the 1st

contact, the sky was cloudy and the Sun looked embarrassed around the clouds. The sky was

suddenly clear approaching the totality. The totality was 1m 51s and the peak of totality was

00:34:02 UTC at 32.7 degrees of altitude. We photographed 19 images (1/3200 - 1/1.3 s, f/5.9,

ISO 100). Some chosen images were developed with Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 and Adobe

Lightroom. We were applying post-processing method by (Druckmüller et al, 2006 and

Druckmüller, M., 2009) with some medication and assumption.

In the fine structure of white light corona, polar plumes occurs on both polar. By the

definition of corona from (Wang et al, 2007), helmet streamers and pseudostreamers also occur

on high latitude. When totality, the angular diameter of the Moon was 34’14,5”. With the help

of some physical parameters from telescope, detector, and basic geometry, we can estimate an

estimation of Moon-Earth distance. Our calculation produce 3884.5 kilometers as our

estimation based on observation, which is comparable to the theoretical value (3474

kilometers).

REFERENCE1. Druckmüller, M. 2009, “Phase Correlation Method for the Alignment of Total Solar Eclipse

Images,” ApJ, 706, 1605-1608.

2. Druckmüller, M., Rušin, V., & Minarovjech, M. 2006, “A new numerical method of total

solar eclipse photography processing,” Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory

Skalnaté Pleso, 36, 131-147.

3. Wang, Y.-M., Biersteker, J. B., Sheeley, N. R., Jr., Koutchmy, S., Mouette, J., &

Druckmüller, M. 2007, “The Solar Eclipse of 2006 and the Origin of Raylike Features in

the White-Light Corona,” ApJ, 660, 882-892.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thanks PT. Pertamina (Persero) in Balikpapan for providing support

to our expedition. We also thank Mike Pierce Ph.D. of Departement of Physics and Astronomy

University of Wyoming, USA, for supporting our public outreach activities in Tana Paser and

Muhammad Rayhan from HAAJ (Himpunan Astronom Amatir Jakarta), for helping us for

image processing of direct image of the total eclipses.

As soon as the increase of public attention towards solar eclipse topic, our team has

been prepared methods of public outreach in order to attract public, especially in the D-day.

Our activities mainly focused on two objectives: educate the local residents about eclipse and

approach local school with activities that engage them to explore their potential in science

education. The first objective executed by two activities, which is collaborate with local

government and press organization to promote and share information about solar eclipse to the

readers and held events in public space before and during the eclipse. The second objectives

executed with events like science competition for high school students, workshops for teachers

and selected students, and assisting schools that already own observational equipment to use

and maintain their assets.

1) Astronomy Research Group, Institut Technologi Bandung

2) Bosscha Observatory, Bandung

3) Biology Departement, Universitas Padjajaran

4) Physics Departement, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

5) Astronomy Departement Undergraduates, Institut Teknologi Bandung

6) Physics Departement, Universitas Nusa Cendana

7) Astronomy Departement Alumnus, Institut Teknologi Bandung

Moedji Raharto1), Mochamad Irfan1), Gabriela Kezla Haans2), Zainuddin M. Arifin2), Gerhana Puannadra Puteri 2), Irfan Imaduddin5), Ade Nur Istiqomah5), Muhammad Rezky5), Arif Ridwan Abriyanto2), Hery Irawadie Rahman4), Putri Siti

Rahma4), Lala Mellia Kusuma Wijayanti4), M. Marzuki Abdullah4), Chornelis J.B. Anin6), Tiffany Hanik Lestari3), SyasyaShanida3), Dzakia Hesti7), Soekiyah Permani7), Sherly Imelda7), Uce2), Asep Rosana2), Aam Ridwan2)

2016 East Kalimantan Solar Eclipse Expedition

Figure 4 : Bekantan (Nasalis larvatus), observed in Mangrove Center, Kariangau

In addition, we conducted a biology-related research in Balikpapan. We observe the

behavior change of proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus), known as bekantan in Indonesia,

before and during the eclipse. The observation was taken place in Mangrove Center, Kariangau,

resulted the fact that their behavior changes from active to passive movement as they prepared

to sleep. These result provide some details in their behavior as individual and as a group.

Figure 2 : Workshop activities held in high schools in Penajam (left) and Tana Paser (Right)

For the first objective, we collaborated with Kaltim Post to disseminate information on

the occasion of solar eclipse to their readers across eastern Kalimantan. This activity allow us to

understand the local government and public current attention better. We also collaborated with

local government where we operates, especially the local education service, to organize some

local events and connect us to high schools under their jurisdiction, especially schools that have

been equipped with resources to conduct its own events. These government also engage us in

supporting their cultural events while also promoting tourism as well as the eclipse education to

public. These collaboration allows us to held public events with our 2-meters pinhole telescope

which is showcased in Lapangan Merdeka (Balikpapan) on car-free day session and the eclipse

day. We also collaborated to held the eclipse observation events m Pantai Kilang Minyak

(Balikpapan), Pantai Corong (Penajam), and Telaga Ungu (Tana Paser), which attended by

hundreds of people from East Kalimantan.

The second objectives executed with supports and participation from 12 senior high

school from three district. These schools have been provided with eclipse-related materials,

such as ND-5 sun glasses, handbook, and another resources related to eclipse education, which

is presented and demonstrated in front of teachers who participate in our workshops. This

workshops held to inspire the teachers to share their knowledge to their students in class. The

science competition also held to inspire students in learning science, especially astronomy. The

competition takes form of written test preliminary and quizzes, with telescope and other

learning materials as prize. In SMA 1 Tana Paser, which own three observation telescopes and

some skywatcher but do not received basic training beforehand, we assist them in form of

training the students and teacher, as well as inspect their equipment to help them maintain their

telescope for the future use.

Figure 1 : Solar eclipse public observation in Telaga Ungu, Tana Paser

Figure 3 : Total solar eclipse image captured from Pantai Corong, Penajam Paser Utara