Thanks *very* much Chuck. The impact of your message is pretty clear (that
I shouldn't worry too much about the photo opportunity, just have the
experience) as is the clarity of your memory after 36 years, as I guess it
was 7 March 1970 eclipse you witnessed:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEplot/SEplot1951/SE1970Mar07T.GIF
--
Piers
-----Original Message-----
--snip
If you've ever watched a partial solar eclipse the run-up to the main event
is rather pedestrian... that is, until you get close to totality and the
tepmerature starts to drop, birds stop chattering, dogs stop barking, shadow
bands go skittering over the ground and Bailey's beads appear on the
periphery of the moon.
Then, BANG!! Suddenly the lights go out, the stars get switched on, near
the horizon it's sunrise/sunset for 360 degrees around you and the sun
suddenly is a moon sized black hole surrounded by streaming flares of red
and blue several times its diameter.
Well, I'll tell you I never got another shot off during all of totality.
You could have knocked me over with a feather. I stood there with my
mouth hanging open suddenly understanding the awe with which the ancients
must have viewed this apparition. If I were to do it again I wouldn't even
take a camera except maybe to shoot the crowd. The view is overwhelming and
too much of a spectacle to bother taking photos.
Buy them from someone else afterwards.
But don't miss it. I think it's the most spectacular thing I've ever seen
in my entire life. Too bad it was only 3-1/2 minutes.
--snip
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