sorry for shouting, and Les has already posted the details but man oh man...rain and cloud all day -except for the exact 15 minutes or so around totality
my first ever total
simply awesome
and we are so so so lucky
all the forecasts were hopeless
we debated a long time the previous night..should we drive 4 and a half hours west where it may -just may be better? finally we decided that no lets stick with the place where all the arrangements have already been made
the site chosen by our hosts was fantastic..would have been worth visiting even if we had nothing else on our minds-a really picturesque site
there were 650 people there by the time we got there-a 1000 were expected
we saw Taiwanese, Jaanese, Koreans and Americans-sure there must have been others as well, but the place was so huge we didnt see everyone there
half an hour before totality we had given up hope. the rain was steady, the cloud solid
then the miracle.
just 5 minutes or so before totality-a clear patch
a mad scramble by those who had given up earlier to get their gear
and then the magic of the longest total solar eclipse of the century..uninterrupted by cloud
our tour guide later suggested we should maybe buy a lottery-the winnings we will need to go next year's event at easter island this break was so totally unexpected
some people got fanatastic images,
I myself got a picture or two, but for the most part I followed the advice-for your first eclipse, observe don't get caught up in trying to image and lose the moment
I saw the whole event through my 12 x 60 binos-except for the few images I took.
what can I say that hasnt been said before-except agree its something any amateur astronomer should do at least once before you die.
stunning and awesome just dont cut it as descriptors but will do.
And then just a few minutes after the totality..the cloud and the rain came back.
and as the cliche goes everyone after the event was planning the next one-maybe Easter Island is too hard but Cairns 2012? you bet!
Narayan
