With a long duration eclipse in prospect and a choice of two attractive locations, what could possibly go wrong? This was our biggest project to date, with groups travelling to both places. The longest duration was over the Mexican resorts at Baja California, which was easy to fix except for a shortage of flight seats. A flight chartered from an airline in Mexico nearly brought the plan to a halt when they failed to get the paperwork sorted for the flight resulting in a long delay. A completely clear sky for that group proved the worth of betting on the weather prospects.
Hawaii offered a spectacular flow of lava exploding into the sea at the time of the eclipse, but the weather was not so cooperative. The coast was shrouded in cloud, disappointing thousands who had travelled there, but the mountains remained clear above the cloud. Our plan was to observe from the higher slopes of the mountain, but the Gendarmes said no. We went there anyway and when I explained to the guys who were sent to block the road that there were a hundred and fifty of us in the coaches and only six of them. They moved to one side… so we moved further up the mountain and saw the eclipse.
A long eclipse from both places provided time to take in the ambience of these rare events, quite different from the urgent drama of shorter eclipses when every detail is crammed into a brief time, sometimes just a few seconds.
Brian McGee
Founder, Astro Trails