As I recall there were 2 groups, one went to Hawaii and had poor luck observing the eclipse.
Cool recollections, Joan. Sky (our son) and I were there too with a friend
from the Deseret News. Sky was a boy then. Today he's a PhD physicist finishing his first postdoc at the University of Wisconsin. I'd love to see the video. Is there any way to post it on YouTube? Thanks for the memories, Joe
________________________________ From: J E CARMAN <jcarman6@q.com> To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 4:12 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Kim Hyatt - waxing nostalgic
Was going through old VHS tapes and ran across one entitled âSolar Eclipse 1991â by Brian Ottum. Popped it into my player (I have a machine that plays VHS and DVDs) and watched all 18 minutes of it. Holy Cow there you were â dare I say TWENTY YEARS AGO. You havenât change much that I can see. I was there, of course, and so was Lowell Lyon (lots more hair and curly too) and Cindy Raetz (Hard??), I think Alpine Stringham. I also saw a glimpse or two of Patrick (yeah, he had more hair too â hehe) and Les Case (his last name was Case not Christopher â not sure about that).
It was the quick and dirty charter to La Paz for the long eclipse. You, Brian, Cindy and maybe others drove into LaPaz to be on the center line. There was a scene of Cindy being a pack mule for someone (dare I say with the initials KH). She was carrying 10x80 binos and a tripod. I and most of the others remained at the airport . Someone rented a room for the day and there are some pictures of us in the room. I really donât remember that part. I remember a number of us went into LaPaz and did some shopping. We all flew back to Salt Lake that night. I donât remember a lot of it, and mainly the details of the entire trip, but what I do remember is the eclipse. Ever minute/second of it.Â
I remember I took the 3â finder off my refractor to act as the lens for my 35 mm camera (film at the time). Set it on a tripod and used one roll of film taking pictures of first contact, etc. I put in a roll of 36 shots just before second contact. I had all these plans, what with 6-1/2 minutes of totality â an eternity â to work with. I planned on taking numerous shots at different exposure times. Was going to try for 10 seconds etc. I remember just setting up and I SAW really, I saw, the moonâs shadow race toward us jfrom the direction of the low hills off in the distance just a split second before totality. It raced toward me and drew my eyes from the ground up to the âevent.â I stared and stared. Iâm not sure, but I must have blinked a few times. I could hear Patrick calling out â6 minutes leftâ, â5 minutes leftâ at â4 minutes leftâ I glanced down and realized I had only taken 3-4 pictures. I âturned the knobâ on the camera timer â I didnât look at it, just twisted it and clicked the shutter. I couldnât take my eyes off the eclipse. I could hear people talking about shadow bands and such nearby, but I didnât even glance at them. I managed to expand my view to include the whole sky and noted how dark it was, how a few stars and even planets appeared. I remember a professional astronomer had challenged astrologers because according to astrology the eclipse was supposed to take place inside Gemini and the eclipse was NOT in Gemini. Then, all too soon it was over.
I remember Patrick walking toward me and saying âWell?â I remember I just had this probably incredibly stupid grin on my face. I couldnât say anything (Joan â speechless??? you had to be there for that). I canât imagine what Patrick thought when I didnât say anything.Â
Itâs been 20 years and that is the only total solar eclipse I have ever seen. I saw an annular in LA a few years later, but itâs just not the same. I had all these plans â swore I would see many more, but in all these years, I havenât kept that promise. On the other hand, when you see the best ....
Just watching the tape brought back really good memories and wanted to say hi and hope all is well.
Joan Carman _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php