Dave Mitsky's Corner

Chasing the Moon's Shadow on the High Seas

Report on the Total Solar Eclipse of 1998 February 26 Aboard MS Veendam

By Dave Mitsky

eclipse

The shadow of the Moon engulfed the Holland America Line's MS Veendam at 18:10:53 2/26/98 UT to the delight of the 1266 eclipsing chasing passengers. There were a few tense moments that morning as the 720 foot long cruise ship maneuvered in search of a location free of clouds and wind, but eventually we reached calm and sunny waters. Our ultimate position at first contact was between Aruba and Curacao at 12d35'21 N, 69d26'44 W, which cost us 3 or 4 seconds of totality, but I, for one, had no complaints.

Prior to first contact I roamed the Veendam taking pictures of the staggering array of photographic equipment, camcorders, binoculars, and telescopes that filled each and every deck. There were two impressive giant binoculars (a pair of Miyauchi 20x100's and Kent Blackwell's 20x120 Japanese naval binoculars), Meade ETX and Questar Maks galore, many Orion ShortTube refractors and their Celestron cousins, a number of Tele Vue Prontos, an Edmunds Astroscan, a Tele Vue Genesis, two Astro-Physics Travelers, and even a Meade LX200 SCT. Several people sported interesting camera/telescope platforms.

After first contact occurred I began photographing the Sun at 15 minute intervals. (When totality neared I shortened the intervals.) As I watched the Moon's shadow cover old Sol a number of sunspots were gobbled up by the celestial dragon. I projected the crescent Sun onto the Promenade deck through my ShortTube's 6x30 finder scope and a number of people, including myself, photographed (or videotaped) the image. A multitude of tiny crescents appeared when I held my "straw" hat sunward above the deck. From time to time I viewed the eclipse through the polymer eclipse shades that S & T had provided and a pair of goggles equipped with number 14 welder's glass.

Soon there was an appreciable change in the quality of the sunlight. Totality was on its way! Shortly before it arrived Venus popped into view. I watched the last tiny sliver of the Sun disappear and rushed to remove the solar filters from my camera and telescope.

Totality! I looked upward to see a "black hole" Sun outlined by its brilliant corona and accompanied by Jupiter to the west and Mercury to the east. Mars and Saturn were visible to the east but I saw neither immediately and did not want to waste any further precious time searching for them. The sky took on a deep twilight aspect, not nearly as dark as I had expected it to be. I hurried to my scope and beheld the Sun's almost living crown. The mostly symmetrical corona and polar brushes shimmered and danced in my Ploessl eyepiece. A fiery prominence was visible at the top of the field of view at 12 o'clock!

I darted to my Canon SLR camera and fired off a number of shots. After a moment passed I finally remembered to turn on my microcassette recorder to capture the crowd's excitement. I was oblivious to the drop in temperature as I resumed viewing the spectacle through my telescope.

The corona was utterly fascinating. As I watched 3 prominences appeared at about 7:30 in the mirror-image field. After a span of seemingly only a few seconds I thought I saw the return of Baily's beads. Then the second "diamond ring" burst forth majestically as I frantically pulled my head away from the eyepiece. Third contact - totality was over! How could that possibly be? Those 3 minutes and 36 seconds were the quickest of my life!

Someone shouted that shadow bands were visible on the ship's superstructure, but try as I might I could not perceive them. The forward deck erupted with cheers and applause and the masses exited through the hatches. As the ship began to cruise towards Curacao only a few diehards like me stayed to see the bittersweet end of the 1998 Caribbean eclipse.