by Chris Malicki
from
Scope magazine of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Toronto Centre
February 1998
After months and probably years of anticipation, the breath-taking event is only minutes away. You are on Curacao, or Antigua, or on a cruise ship in the Galapagos Islands in the path of totality. The moon’s shadow is about to overwhelm you.
There are numerous interesting phenomenon to experience in the short two minutes around second contact. As the few remaining minutes tick away, the western sky darkens into a gray, then ominous-looking storm-like horizon; the eerie eclipse-look of the sickened pale sunlight struggles to ward off the invading shadow. The shadow looms up in the west and can be seen rapidly rising and approaching. To fully appreciate it, one must observe it for more than only a few seconds; you must concentrate on it over an extended period of time. Meanwhile, the thin crescent sun is beginning to break up into Baily’s beads which change by the second and are fascinationg to watch. But while you are watching them on the projection screen, or through a solar filter, shadow bands begin to dance around your feet and you want to stare at them too. But now you just have to look again at the larger size of the shadow. At this exact moment the sun’s corona pops out and is visible naked eye 45 seconds before actual totality begins. It is a beautiful sight to glance up (I emphasize “glance” because you are doing this naked eye without a filter) and see the actual moment when the full black disc of the moon becomes completely visible. Again, you want to look at a filtered view of the beads, at the shadow and sky noticing Venus and Jupiter, at shadow bands ALL at the same time. Finally the diamond ring and only a mere 15 seconds for the beautiful red/orange chromosphere before it is covered up in its turn.
Towering red prominences stick out from the black disk and the incredibly complex corona with its intricate loops and streamers stretch out into space. After a marvelous few minutes, the chromosphere appears on the opposite limb, the diamond ring blazes forth, the shadow rushes away to the west.
All of these rare phenomena have occured in only a few minutes. To fully appreciate their beauty requires knowledge, discipline, practice, and freedom from other distractions.
What will you be doing during these precious few minutes? Will you witness the beauty and grandeur of these brief events in all their glory, or will you hide behind a sophisticated camera or video and regret that you didn’t really see the eclipse at all. Watching the eclipse in photos or on video, although rewarding in itself is far inferior to actually seeing it directly.
No photo or video that I have ever seen comes close to the beauty of the eclipse itself. The rapidly shifting Baily’s beads, and the sudden dramatic appearance of the corona around a very thin crescent have to be seen to be believed. The corona’s thousands of tortuous filaments extend in wonderous loops and streamers. In 1988 the corona had four enormous wings that created a cosmic dragonfly in the sky. In July 1990, a looped streamer was separated from a straight one by a strange hole or gap. In June 1992, a jet straight streamer extended 6 solar diameters towards Venus. Nowhere, have I seen any photo that showed these features. I saw them only by carefully looking and concentrating during the brief moments they were visible. If I had spent all my time behind a camera, I would not have seen these features. The closest reproduction I ever saw to what a total eclipse looks like was in the science museum in Boston, where the dark blue sky colour, shape of the corona, prominces were painted in a very realistic reproduction. But the best painting could not show the extraordinary complexity of the fine coronal streamers, and certainly not its beautiful glow.
So, what is my point? I think, that if I am willing to pay a few thousand dollars and dream and anticipate for months about the marvelous addicting show in the sky, I want to really experience it when it happens. First time observers get too caught up in photography only to bitterly regret afterwards that they missed the event. Although I will take a few photos and videos, I’ll be sure to spend most of my few minutes staring at the phenomena, especially the corona in great detail, memorizing its shape, describing it in the tape recorder, and LIVING it. If I get some good pictures and videos, fine. But what really matters to me is to really see and experience it, and remember it for good.