As totality ends, the erupting volcano in the Soufrier Hills, Montserrat is seen 26 miles away coming out from under the Moon's shadow. Jupiter (above the Sun) and Venus (in the clouds) may also be seen. This photograph was composed from several digital stills made by an Apple QuickTake 200 camera at 640 x 480 x 24 and stitched together using Adobe PhotoShop. Note that the Sun was actually higher in the sky than it appears here.
Here are some of the things I learned first hand chasing eclipses:
1. Don't push too hard for an end that is beyond your control. Better to get and stay in tune with your surroundings.
2. The earth has many uninhabitable or difficult to reach locations with less than ideal cloud conditions. The precise time and relatively tiny path of totality demonstrate this reality. Finding any place along the path of totality where conditions are likely to be favorable and accessible is almost always a challenge.
3. Experiencing the full magnitude of a clear sky total eclipse is an awesome visceral experience that gives you perspective on your relatively insignificant place in the Universe without harming you (assuming you don't stare at a partially eclipsed sun.)
4. Celestial mechanics to predict eclipses is a well understood science. No wonder the first professional astronomers were hired by kings to predict eclipses.
Tom and I had been to several eclipses in the past, and had never experienced totality:
March 7, 1970 Massachusetts
Tried to get to Nantucket in March, 1970. Got to the dock in Woods Hole for the ferry, and waited in line with 100s of other people. While the ferry could hold 300, it left with only 55 because it had to leave on time. The ferry people had no idea that so many would show up on a cold March day to travel to Nantucket and were overwhelmed. It was too late to drive to Virginia Beach, so we drove out to Monomoy Point on Cape Cod, where we saw 99.9% totality for 1 second, which is nowhere near the drama of a total eclipse.
July 10, 1972 Manicougan, Quebec
Drove 12 hours into the Canadian wilderness in 1972. Got to a dam that was just being completed for Quebec Hydro at the end of 150 miles of gravel road, backing up water into the Manicouagan caldera, where a large meteor had punched a depression thousands of years earlier. Exploring the inside of the dam, we almost missed the eclipse. Overcast skies thwarted our attempt to experience totality, but through the clouds, and with a telescope we could see solar flares. (this was the eclipse memorialized in Carly Simon's song, "Your So Vain")
July 11, 1991 Big Island, Hawaii
We had meticulously planned this trip for over 2 years. By the time we were finished, 20 people were in our eclipse party, flying to the Big Island of Hawaii.
To make sure we would be successful, we scoped out a place above Waikoloa 1800' above the ocean and its thermal layer. We should be able to see the shadow rushing across the Pacific at us. To make sure we wouldn't be clouded out, we checked out the site at 7:20 AM the day before, the time when the eclipse was going to occur the next day. It was a beautiful sunny morning.
On eclipse day, we got up at 3:30 AM to take everyone and the telescopes from our Kailua condo up the mountain. It was raining. But we went anyway. The rain stopped around 4:30 AM and we set everything up awaiting a beautiful dawn that didn't come. It was overcast, and remained overcast. It got a little darker during the eclipse, but not a great experience. 19 of us saw no eclipse. When we got back to the condo, the one guy who had planned all along just to roll out of bed 20 minutes before the eclipse and look up at it, was the only one who saw it. Down at the ocean, skies were clear. At least we were in Hawaii for the rest of the vacation, where I had lots of time to contemplate, and vowed 'not to put too fine a point on things' in the future, but to become more in tune with nature.
February, 1998 Antigua
Antigua was our second choice destination, Montserrat was our first. Unfortunately, the Soufriere Hills volcano began erupting in 1995, and by 1997, most of the island had been evacuated. We quickly made plans to stay in Antigua. This time our eclipse party was about 12 people, and we all saw the eclipse.