Eclipse Experiences

This page contains experiences, photos, etc of the 2002 eclipse as seen from Zimbabwe.

1.

It was GREAT! 2nd time around, but still GREAT!

I'm just back from the eclipse viewing, and would go again if it were possible. The corona was silvery and not bluish like last year, and the 360° sunset was also silvery not reddish/orange like last year. And as before, only 100% will do.

We were perched up on a high craggy outcrop of rock, overlooking the Limpopo river basin on one side and more outcrops and desert bushland, with scatterings of wildebeest, zebra, impala, kudu on the other. Amazing terrain, wild and beautiful in all its dryness. The crowd was in high spirits, some in more ways than one, and all suitable over-awed by the experience. We had a brilliantly clear sky, and gentle breeze to cool the blazing heat. A long way to have gone, but worth every moment. I feel ever so privileged to have had the chance to see another eclipse, (after a very last-minute decision) but also to have had such a wonderful tour of this lesser known but magnificent area of our torn apart land. You had to be there! I slept under the stars, they were brilliant, and a gentle breeze kept the mozzies away and temperature down. The crowd (mostly strangers to me) were wonderful, and a lot of fun. What a wonderful world we can be.

Arrived home without incident today, thank you Lord, and back to the real world tomorrow for a day b4 the w/e, and on-call, and all the other realities.

- Jenny Stewart

2.

THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE 2002 FROM BEITBRIDGE

Mike Begbie, A.S.S.A. (Harare Centre)

My preparations for Zimbabwe's second Total Solar Eclipse began about two weeks before the event. Since the 2001 eclipse, the nation has suffered extreme hardship, and many people have left. Those remaining have been in

a state of extreme depression as to the future of this once beautiful land,

and I suddenly felt that the eclipse was an opportunity to send some message of hope to our citizens.

I therefore wrote to Alan Hale, co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, whom I met at the 2001 eclipse, and requested that he write a short message of hope to the citizens of Zimbabwe along the lines of his excellent "Challenge to Humanity" article that he produced for the first anniversary of the September 11th 2001 terror attacks in the United States of America. Alan complied with this request, and I subsequently sent it to as many people in the country as I could think of, as well as certain web pages and to SW Radio Africa, who were so impressed that they actually interviewed Alan about his "Project Earthrise"*, and he read out his message to Zimbabweans.

Broadcasting from England, it is estimated that up to two million Zimbabweans receive SW Radio Africa on short-wave in this country. I was also interviewed about the eclipse on this station, my contribution being aired on the Friday evening before the eclipse, with Alan's appropriately on the eve of the eclipse. The message is reproduced at the appropriate point in this report.

A number of the Harare Centre members made plans to travel to Plumtree, which is near the border with Botswana, but David Pringle-Wood, the new Chairman of the Harare Centre and I decided that Beitbridge, the border post with South Africa was a better option, as it offered a longer duration and the best chance of clear skies. After plotting the centre line on a 1/50,000 map of the area, we found two good possibilities: the old and disused road that veered off the modern road; and the old disused Beitbridge airstrip. We punched the co-ordinates of the centre line at both these points into our Global Positioning Systems, and together with my wife and one other friend, left Harare early on the day before the eclipse.

Arriving at Bubye Village, which was to be our accommodation for the night, we secured said accommodation and, it still being early afternoon, we proceeded to drive the further eighty kilometres south to our proposed sites. The old Beitbridge road idea proved to be a non-starter - so much thick brush began to encroach on the road, that two kilometres down it, we decided to turn back and test the second possibility, the disused airstrip. This turned out to be a much better proposition, still with amounts of scrub-type vegetation, but interspersed with large, sandy, flat and open areas. We picked an area that would give us a good north-east view with some low lying hills in the scene that would make for some attractive panoramic photography, and marked the point.

We were positioned at latitude 22° 09' 21" South, longitude 30° 02' 54" East, seven kilometres north-east of Beitbridge town itself, and within a couple of hundred metres of the centre line!

We drove back to Bubye Village, arriving about 5:30 p.m. in time to freshen up and listen to and record Alan Hale's message and interview. We then proceeded to the Lion and Elephant Motel, where we had a sumptuous cold buffet meal. About sixty people including the remaining twenty or so in our party were there, and after the meal Dave gave a short lecture concerning the site that we had prepared that afternoon, and exactly how to get there, while I presented a brief talk on the phenomena to expect in the run-up to and during totality. We both placed strong emphasis on safety precautions, the correct use of eclipse glasses and re-iterated the importance of arriving at the site early.

We awoke well before sunrise and I resolved that I would gain as much from this day as possible. Going outside, I saw that the still-hidden Sun was colouring the horizon to the east, and Venus was a brilliant light a third of the way up a perfectly clear sky. Turning around, I observed the dark blue column that was the Earth's shadow streaming off into space. I reflected that very soon I would be standing in the shadow of another celestial body.

We were on the road by 5:30 a.m., and as we got closer to our objective, we experienced some trepidation as we saw the cloud beginning to loom above the south-east horizon. We arrived at our site a little before 6:30 a.m., and immediately began to set up our equipment. Word had spread from our talk of the previous evening, and by 7 a.m. just on one hundred people had joined us at the site. It was already quite hot, and there had been not a breath of wind when we arrived, but a faint stir in the air was now apparent. Using my 60 mm refractor at 64x, I recorded First Contact at 7:11:58 a.m., while Dave, observing with the unaided eye saw it at 7:12:01a.m. Within a few minutes, the wind began to pick up. A light cirrus had by now formed immediately over the Sun, which began to worry us, but it soon cleared away.

By 7:35 a.m. the "eclipse wind" was much stronger and blowing directly towards us as we watched the partial phase progressing. It became strong enough to buffet the microphones on our recording equipment, and each time I took a shot through the camera, two people stood in front of me and slightly on either side of the lens as the quite sturdy tripod was vibrating and needed a windbreak! At 7:45 a.m. the sky began to take on that well known blue-grey cast, and it was noticeably cooler. Now I called everybody together, and when they had assembled, I read the following message out to them:

"Dear Citizens of Zimbabwe,

A year and a half ago my family and I had the privilege of visiting your country, on the occasion of the total solar eclipse that passed across your nation. During the two weeks we spent in Zimbabwe we not only were able to see some of your country's natural beauty, but we were also able to meet and interact with a number of Zimbabwe's people from all walks of life. My whole family came away not only with fond memories of our times in Zimbabwe, but also with friends with whom we remain in regular contact.

We are well aware that Zimbabwe has been going through some difficult times as of late. Because of our memories of our visit to your country, and our continuing correspondences with our friends there, these difficulties you are experiencing have touched us in a very personal way. It is troubling to see any society experiencing trials, but when those trials affect people we have visited, and have shared laughter and tears with, it becomes immeasurably more troubling and heartbreaking.

During my travels to various places on this planet I have had the opportunity to interact with people from numerous societies and cultures. While we may have our superficial differences, I've discovered that, deep down, all of us, as human beings, seek the same things. We seek security and well-being for ourselves and our families. We seek peace with our fellow human beings. We seek to give our children the opportunity to strive for, and achieve, their highest dreams. And we seek knowledge of our world and understanding of ourselves and of our role within that world.

It can be difficult, in light of all the troubles that so many of us over the world face, to be optimistic that we will ever be able to achieve those hings that all of us seek. But humanity has faced, and overcome, challenges before, and while those facing us now are perhaps more powerful than any we have ever faced, so, too, are the tools we have at our disposal for confronting them. The most powerful tool is our own mind, and the determination to see that we will succeed.

Mohandas Gandhi once challenged us to "be the change that you want to see in the world." There is no limit to our ability to overcome our challenges, and to the heights that we can achieve - if we will believe that we can do these.

During this coming week, nature will smile upon Zimbabwe once again, as a second total solar eclipse in as many years crosses your country. I will not be able to be with you in person this time, but I will still be with you in spirit. As we watch the light of the sun disappear, let us remember that, in a few minutes' time, it will return; so also let us remind ourselves that, however dark our present circumstances may be, a new light will reappear, if we remain strong and persevere.

Sincerely,

Alan Hale

Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA"

This was greeted with a wonderful ovation, and everybody then dispersed to prepare for totality. We showed people how to produce crescents by "latticing" their fingers (those with wicker-work hats had a distinct advantage!), and several photographed the projected image through the telescope. Excitement began to mount and high in the south-west a passenger jet described lazy circular contrails, brilliant white against the darkening sky, as it waited to fly into the Moon's shadow, adding another dimension to the already surrealistic panorama. Fully twenty minutes before Second Contact, Venus became easily visible to the unaided eye, and grew brighter and brighter by the minute.

It was interesting to note that it remained relatively bright on the ground almost up to Second Contact, and in the final five minutes, things started happening very quickly. The wind died down rapidly and then ceased completely, leaving an eerie silence broken only by the hushed and awed murmurings of people and a flock of swallows calling and sweeping in small agitated circles over our heads.

Two minutes before Second Contact, shadow bands became apparent, and increased in contrast rapidly. This was my first experience of this phenomenon, as I did not witness it at the 2001 eclipse. They appeared very much like ghostly snakes writhing across the ground, maybe one and a half metres apart and moving at approximately four to five metres per second. Now the light dimmed very rapidly and the solar crescent broke up into at least six naked eye Bailey's Beads. As the Diamond Ring disappeared and the shadow engulfed us, a privately owned helicopter with navigation lights blazing roared low over us, flying into the shadow, drowning out the excited exclamations of those of us on the ground to some extent, but adding to the sense of drama! The Corona burst into view, shaped like a four-leaf clover and with much mottled detail. "Brushes" could be seen at the solar poles, and Dave afterwards described the colour of the corona as "having a green-white cast with a faint, light brown component to it". The last thirty seconds of totality were very dynamic, with new bright crimson prominences bursting into view behind the western limb of the Moon one after another in rapid succession. Then came the second Diamond Ring and another burst of Bailey's Beads. As totality ended, strong shadow bands once again became apparent, lasting at least two minutes before they faded away. The "eclipse wind" returned, but not as strongly as before.

It was the first total eclipse for many people in the group, who thanked us for guiding them through it. One woman who approached me was still weeping fifteen minutes later! We decided to wait for Fourth Contact, and were virtually alone again when Dave recorded it at 9:34:15 a.m. and I managed to "eke it out" through the telescope to 9:34:56 a.m. As we packed up, the temperature was already back above thirty degrees Celsius.

We returned to the Lion and Elephant Motel and had a celebratory Full English Breakfast before departing for Harare, arriving back in the late afternoon, weary but immensely satisfied with our experience.

M. J. R.Begbie

songbird@mweb.co.zw

Hilton Observatory

Harare, Zimbabwe

17° 46' 19" S

31° 00' 06" E

Astronomy Educator

I.C.Q. Obs. Code BEG01

Mike teaches astronomy to small groups – for more information, contact him at his email address: mailto:songbird@mweb.co.zw

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