Stories

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?"

(Eclipse2024.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.