| Expeditions |
The March 2006 Total Solar Eclipse
| | Dr. Mike Reynolds | August 11, 2006 |
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| The beautiful diamond ring just prior to second contact. |
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Why would a sane person travel around the globe, sometimes to difficult-to-get-to-places, to stand in the shadow of the Moon for a few fleeting moments? My answer: try it and see why! I cannot answer this question in a way to have it make any sense to someone who has not experienced a total solar eclipse! Eclipses for me are one of my favorite astronomical events in astronomy; and total solar eclipses in particular. There is something about the splendor of a total solar eclipse: from the horizon colors and shadow of the Moon “swooping in,” the suspense of shadow bands, second contact, the beauty of totality, and even third contact. I even enjoy the partial phases, because it is such a wonderful demonstration of the relative positions and motions of the Sun-Moon-Earth. |
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| The Ocean Monarch -- our eclipse-observing platform! |
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I had the fortune of observing the March 29, 2006 eclipse just south of Rhodes aboard the m/v Ocean Monarch. This was my fourth eclipse cruise and 15th total solar eclipse. The skies were excellent and I found the ship a stable platform. Totality at this position lasted about 3 minutes and 50 seconds. There was not much horizon color from our location with this eclipse; I dubbed it “the monochrome eclipse.” The Moon was so richly black against the Sun at totality; this feature came out clearly in photographs and images. Several nice prominences were visible; the solar corona showed nice structure. |
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| Skies at totality! Some jet contrails but overall nice skies. Note little color at the horizon. |
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Total eclipse chasers are a special breed of people and we admit it. Those of us who have been doing this for some time try to relax and enjoy the local scenery. But we’re always focused on the weather… will it be clear? Should we try to go somewhere else? It seems like I was checking weather prognostications every five minutes; I know I drove the Captain of the m/v Ocean Monarch up the wall with my weather and ship position inquiries! |
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| Totality! A 1/1000 second exposure taken through the Meade 80mm APO with a Canon EOS 10D. |
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My eclipse chasing experience has provided me with some heart-stopping totalities. Renting a plane at the last minute in Surinam, South America to fly about the clouds and capture the great 1973 total solar eclipse, a sunrise eclipse from that vantage point. 2005 and in the South Pacific where it looked like the eclipse was going to be eclipsed by clouds – alas the ship’s captain had been tracking one hole in the clouds and “swung” the ship around so we’d get the brief totality… |
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| The Acropolis at night. |
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Eclipses also allow one to “see the world” without joining the Navy! We visited a number of historic sites in Greece including the Acropolis and ancient Olympia, wonderful islands like Mykonos and Santorini, and Ephesus in Turkey. |
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| 3rd Contact -- time to celebrate and begin thinking ahead to the next eclipse! |
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With number fifteen in the books for me, it is a good feeling and always exciting. I know in the scheme of some total solar eclipse chasers, that’s a low number. Even a grand total of 36 minutes and 18 seconds “in the shadow” is a low compared to others. But I keep chasing total solar eclipses because to me each total solar eclipse is very different. It’s a great way to see the planet as a tourist. You meet new people who become life-long friends. And as soon as 3rd or 4th contact is history, many of us are already looking ahead to the next eclipse! |
| Classifications: Astrophotography, General, Walmart, Solar| 8/11/2006 - 10/30/2006 |
