From Mary Barnes:
April 8, 2005, we were aboard the MV Discovery in a remote part of
the South Pacific. Not all the passengers were eclipse chasers. Some
were aboard because of other interests, such as the Galapagos
Islands. The eclipse would be brief but perfect. Because the moon
would be exactly the same apparent size as the sun, eclipse
phenomena like Baily's Beads and prominences would occur around the
whole 360 degrees of the sun at once. The morning of the eclipse, it
was announced that, due to weather, the ship would move to a
different spot than planned, resulting in another 1.5 seconds of
totality. You could tell which passengers had seen total eclipses
before: They were the ones screaming and applauding. The others were
rolling their eyes. A woman next to me sneered, "I don't get it.
What's the big deal? It's just another second and a half." I grinned
(well, actually,continued grinning) and said, "Never seen one,
right?" She hadn't, of course. I said, "Let's talk again after the
eclipse." When I saw her that evening, she was still walking around
in post-eclipse euphoria. I started to ask her if she got it now,
but before I could finish the question, she said, "I get it! I get
it! When's the next one?"
Eclipse2017.org note: The
eclipse of 8 Apr 2005 was stunningly beautiful.
Because the moon was almost exactly the same apparent size as the
sun, the Chromosphere was visible practically encircling the
moon's disk. See Miloslav
Druckmuller's page for wonderful photographs. (As we
post this, the upcoming 2013 TSE promises to be a similar show!)