This article was contributed by David Baumgartner as part of a local series on astronomy. Lea este artículo en español aquí.
Sitting at home in, what I would like to call my chair but my dog Lady, seems to sit in it more than I do, I was admiring the great feat that I had just accomplished by hanging a collage solar eclipse picture on the wall all by myself. It is one my wife JoAnne and I had taken in Egypt March of 2006. And I must say it was hung squarely to the wall. This is starting out to sound like a story about me, isn’t it? Well, yes it is, after all this is my article and they said I could write about anything I wanted.
As I’m sitting there in all my glory I go into this small trance as my eyes took sight of the picture, almost a million things went through my mind, from preparing for the trip, to seeing the pyramids and the Nile, to trekking our way west of Cairo to witness the eclipse and then all the way back home. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words but in this case, it has to be even more than that. For I could use up a thousand words just talking about getting on the plane to depart San Jose for our destination in Egypt.
Looking at the first figure on the left of the picture you can see the effect the Moon has on the Sun by notching out just a small piece on its bottom right-hand corner. (I know a circle doesn’t have any corners. Just work with me here). At this time everyone was so excited because the anticipation of the event had finally started.
Going on to the second figure one can see that the Sun is about severed in half by the Moons’ presence sitting in front of the giant ball of fire. Now everyone there can see that our surroundings are somewhat darker, giving us a kind of an eerie feeling.
Now in the third figure the Sun is about 80% covered by our neighboring Moon. It is getting so dark you can see Venus and some bright stars starting to show up in the sky. There is now a little chill in the air; the birds we heard earlier are almost silent now.
Then comes the total eclipse. An unbelievable sight, just unbelievable. Pictures don’t do the eclipse any justice whatsoever. It is amazing what your eyes can pick up and register that only the best photo shop operator can bring out in a photo. Our maker knew what he (or she) was doing when making us.
I must be the luckiest photographer in the world. For to get this next picture (called “the diamond ring”) you really have to know what you are doing. And it was plain to see that I didn’t. The timing and setting have to be perfect. So here I am just snapping pictures left and right hoping that I would catch some glimpse of something to make me look like I knew what I was doing.
It was so interesting to have these seasoned photographers come up to me later and ask me how I got this picture. What was your exposure? What type of filter did you use? How did you get the timing down? Well, all I could do was tell them the truth. It wasn’t nearly as exciting nor was it what they wanted to hear so they just walked away mumbling to themselves, what a lucky son of a gun. Actually, they were using other words than that but I didn’t think it would be proper to repeat them in this article.
The last three pictures are just a reverse of the first three. The whole thing took about two hours and forty minutes, from first contact to the end. The total eclipse itself only lasted 3 min and 58 sec. The fastest four minutes in my life. I didn’t want it to end.
So my little trance came to an end with Lady sitting there patiently looking at me wondering when I was going to vacate her chair, so she could relax. It was nice to relive the trip without leaving the house and so much cheaper travelling that way.
We lost Lady a short time after the picture hanging. To this day every time I go to sit in the living room, I stop to think; should I be asking permission to sit in “her” chair.
We get much too attached to our dogs. It’s not like our children can compete with their furry siblings, why they can’t even spend a few frigid hours under the evening stars with me like Lady dose.
Clear Skies
What’s up this month?
February 2025
Feb 1 Moon passes 2° south of Venus
Feb 1 Moon passes 1.4° north of Neptune
Feb 1 Moon is at perigee (228,327 miles from Earth)
Beb 3 Venus passes 4° north of Neptune
Feb 5 First Quarter Moon
Feb Moon passes 5° north of Uranus
Feb 6 Moon passes 5° north of Jupiter
Feb 9 Moon passes 0.8° north of Mars
Feb 12 Full Moon
Feb 17 Moon passes 0.3° south of Spica
Feb 17 Moon is at apogee (251,582.miles from Earth
Feb 20 Last Quarter Moon
Feb 21 Moon passes 0.4° south of Antares
Feb 25 Moon passes 1.0° south of Pluto
Feb 27 New Moon
Feb 28 Moon passes 0.4° south of Mercury
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