A total solar eclipse is not something that you see — it's something that you experience.
My first total eclipse experience was in Turkey in 2006, just as I was starting my Ph.D. in solar physics at Queen's University Belfast. I was obviously familiar with the phenomenon but wasn't sure why it was made out to be such a big deal. But a local astronomy group had chartered a flight to Antalya, and I decided that a week in the Mediterranean would at least be worth the trip. I was not prepared for how witnessing an eclipse in the path of totality would shape my life for years to come — and how it would transform my view of the world and its place in our solar system. The bug had bitten me: I was now a solar eclipse chaser. No eclipse trip has been without its hurdles. During a trip to Siberia in 2008, I learned that my grandfather had died (my family had been trying to reach me for days), and I contracted hepatitis in Mongolia. In Indonesia in 2016, last-minute weather forecasts forced me to abandon my initial destination and instead make a mad dash for the remote island of Ternate. Going to Chile in 2020 at the height of the pandemic was of course a logistical nightmare, and I was thwarted by clouds in the sky anyway. And last year in the remote outback of Western Australia, I managed to bump into my ex, whom I had introduced to eclipse chasing. Now North America takes center stage for eclipse viewing for the second time in seven years. I am currently in Mazatlán, after driving more than 750 miles northwest of Mexico City. The warnings of hijackings, kidnappings, corrupt police officers and worse could not allay my excitement of getting to witness those precious few minutes of totality once again, which I wrote about in a Times Opinion guest essay. Some of you north of the border may need to drive only a few hours and sleep in your car — a relatively minor inconvenience — to get to share in the experience that we umbraphiles will go to the ends of the Earth to have. But trust me: It might just change your life.
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Saturday, April 6, 2024
Opinion Today: The life-changing experience of a total eclipse
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