Ep#28 - Alessandro Pessi & Luca Quaglia - Besselian Elements

Show Notes: Basselian Elements — Eclipse Chasers & Citizen Scientists

Host Leticia Ferrer talks with Luca Quaglia and Alessandro Pezzi of BasilianElements.com, a team of eclipse chasers known for their detailed mountain-shadow and lunar-limb mapping ahead of major solar eclipses.

Topics covered:

• 1:04 — How the international team came together (university friends from Italy, joined by collaborators in England, Greece, and Romania after their first eclipse in 1999)
• 7:44 — Measuring the solar radius using total solar eclipses, and why the century-old reference value needed revisiting
• 13:07 — Why they camp out at the edge of the path of totality for maximum measurement sensitivity
• 19:04 — The 2024 Texas eclipse story — a fellow observer expecting a minute of totality got 12.8 seconds instead
• 51:49 — Annular eclipses and Baily's Beads — how they extract solar-radius data even without full totality
• 46:53 — Avoiding classic eclipse-chasing mistakes (like forgetting to remove the solar filter) through rigorous preparation
• 46:24 — Their free Eclipse Countdown app for precise contact times
• 58:46 — Plans for the 2027 Spain eclipse, chasing the edge near Zaragoza/Teruel

Besselian Elements:

https://www.besselianelements.com/

Leticia's video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR6wVyBLhdE

Leticia Ferrer's site: 

https://texassolareclipses.com/

Host Chris Chotas Alexander's Site
https://www.chotachrome.com/
IG: @chotachrome

Totality Talks is created by Leticia Ferrer and Chris Chotas Alexander.  

Totality Talks is produced by Chris Chotas Alexander.