I have been looking for current information on the Allias effect findings and came across this thread. From what I've read there were plans to carefully repeat these observations to prove or disprove the deviation during the 1999 and 2005 eclipses but I haven't been able to find anything on it other than here: http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/head...t06aug99_1.htm.
The wikipedia article seems to contradict the nasa article.

Allias' original observations were made during the total Solar eclipse of June 30, 1954. He observed the pendulum changing its angle of rotation by 13.5 degrees. He again observed this during a Solar eclipse in 1959. Since this is an easy and little or no cost experiment I'm surprised 50 years have gone by with no one clearing this up. Is there perhaps some reason the scientific community would avoid addressing it more fully? From what I read there were plenty of willing participants. I ran across several articles of others observing the same thing.

At the new Moon, the energy is the most passive or most peaceful as compared to the full Moon being a more agressive energy. At new and full moon, the Sun and Moon produce tidal bulges that add together to produce extreme tides showing this is an extreme movement time on earth. When the Moon is aligned exactly between Sun and Earth it makes sense that there could be a deviation such as was observed by Allias. During normal new Moons it would be so slight, if there at all, that it would go unnoticed. But during a total eclipse the Moon is blocking the normal interaction between the Sun and Earth as much as is possible. So if there were to be any effect it would be noticeable then.

I'm also trying to get a clear visual of what he observed. Excuse me if I appear ignorant as I'm clearly not a physics major. Would someone be so kind as to explain what Allias saw in terms even a child could understand. I've only seen one of these pendulums in action once but I have some understanding of how it works. If the normal rotation is 0.19 degrees/minute what does it mean that it changed its rotation by 13.5 degrees during the 2.5 hour eclipse? Does that mean that during the 150 minutes of the eclipse it moved 42 degrees instead of 28.5 degrees?