MY SOLAR ECLIPSE EXPERIENCE HISTORY

BY PAUL D. MALEY

The following is list of the solar eclipses that I have attempted. The formal Ring of Fire Expeditions number is listed in the column to the right. At the urging of colleagues I am now including partial eclipses. Many annular and total eclipses were observed from the edge where Baily’s Beads science was attempted. The ‘eclipse type’ below is the type of eclipse seen where I ended up for the observation. For example, if the eclipse was supposed to be total and I was not able to get to the zone of totality, I attempted observation as close as I could get to the location of totality. In that case I would list it as partial. Reaching the zone of totality or annularity was especially difficult in my early years where I was not able to afford travel and even during my working years. “Location Observed” is the name of the closest town that I was able to get to at the time. The NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society eclipse team is represented by the Texas flag. If you see this flag at an eclipse, it is probably RING OF FIRE EXPEDITIONS.

Many people travel to observe total solar eclipses, I, on the other hand will go to almost any solar eclipse. Here is the first of 4 consecutive partial solar eclipses. The first one on February 15, 2018 was to the top of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Santiago, Chile.

The roof of the Courtyard Hotel, Santiago, Chile………………………………..Partial eclipse photo taken with 80mm Takahashi FS-60 (P. Maley photo)

Below is a result of the partial eclipse on July 13, 2018 when I traveled to Melbourne, Australia just to photograph a mere 2.3% of the Sun being covered by the Moon. We met up with fellow eclipse chasers Paul Stewart and Ann Bullen and observed from town after moving around to avoid potential big cloud banks. It did cloud over after the end of the eclipse!

Observing at South Camberwell Uniting Church, Melbourne, AU (P. Stewart photo)………………Eclipse maximum at 1.23pm EST July 13, 2018. (P. Maley photo)

A third example was on August 11, 2018 in Jessheim, Norway with another partial eclipse that covered about 5% of the Sun at maximum. Here we got very lucky again. Forecasts were terrible and there were a few high clouds at the start of the eclipse but they cleared off for the remainder only to return after the Sun had regained it full brilliance. Following that, the Sun was not clearly visible for the rest of the day.

Near Oslo, Norway airport…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Maximum eclipse shot (P. Maley photo)

My 4th partial solar eclipse in a row was observed on January 6, 2019 from Seoul, South Korea from Yong-ma-ru Park 6 miles from Incheon Airport. In all cases an 80mm Takahashi scope was used for photography. In the image below, ISO400 at 1/2000 sec. To illustrate how innocuous this eclipse was, a couple of runners and one person pushing a walker were the only ones out and none of them noticed the eclipse. One person did stop and stare at us foreigners and Lynn let him look through a welder’s glass at the Sun. He did not appear impressed but continued to stare at us. We never saw any other foreigners in the area during our 36 hours in Seoul. Photos of me were taken by Lynn Palmer.

Clear, bright sky near Incheon Airport, Seoul, Korea………………………………………………….Maximum coverage 36%; ISO400, 1/2000 sec. (P. Maley photo)

NUMBER	DATE	ECLIPSE TYPE	LOCATION OBSERVED	ROFE#

1	9/20/60	PARTIAL	LOS ANGELES, CA USA
2	7/20/63	PARTIAL	SAN ANTONIO, TX USA
3	5/9/67	PARTIAL	EDINBURG, TX USA
4	9/11/69	PARTIAL	HOUSTON, TX USA
5	3/7/70	TOTAL	VALDOSTA, GA USA	1
6	2/25/71	PARTIAL	PARIS, FRANCE
7	7/10/72	TOTAL	CAP CHAT, QUEBEC, CANADA	2
8	12/24/73	ANNULAR	ACAPULCO, MEXICO	3
9	12/13/74	PARTIAL	HOUSTON, TX USA
10	5/11/75	PARTIAL	ATHENS, GREECE
11	10/12/77	TOTAL	LAKE GUATAVITA, COLOMBIA	4
12	2/26/79	TOTAL	LAKE WINNIPEG, CANADA	5
13	2/16/80	TOTAL	KENYA	6
14	8/10/80	PARTIAL	HOUSTON, TX USA
15	7/20/82	PARTIAL	LONDON, UK
16	6/11/83	TOTAL	BANGIL, JAVA, INDONESIA	7
17	5/30/84	TOTAL-ANNULAR	ATLANTA, GA USA	8
18	11/22/84	TOTAL	KWIKILA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA	9
19	5/19/85	PARTIAL	ANCHORAGE, AK USA
20	10/3/86	PARTIAL	HOUSTON, TX USA
21	3/29/87	TOTAL-ANNULAR	LIBREVILLE, GABON	10
22	9/23/87	ANNULAR	TAIYUAN, CHINA	11
23	3/7/89	PARTIAL	SCOTTSDALE, AZ USA
24	7/22/90	PARTIAL	HONOLULU, HI USA
25	1/15/91	ANNULAR	NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND	12
26	7/11/91	TOTAL	SANTIAGO IXCUINTLA, MEXICO	13
27	1/4/92	ANNULAR	OTTA ISLAND, TRUK	14
28	5/21/93	PARTIAL	PHOENIX, AZ USA
29	5/10/94	ANNULAR	LENEXA, KS USA	15
30	11/3/94	TOTAL	TACNA, PERU	16
31	4/29/95	ANNULAR	PUINAHUA, PERU	17
32	10/24/95	TOTAL	PINAHAT, INDIA	18
33	10/12/96	PARTIAL	LONDON, UK
34	3/9/97	TOTAL	DARHAN, MONGOLIA	19
35	2/26/98	TOTAL	WESTPUNKT, CURACAO	20
36	8/22/98	ANNULAR	JOHORE BARU, MALAYSIA	21
37	2/16/99	ANNULAR	PERTH, AUSTRALIA	22
38	8/11/99	TOTAL	BATMAN, TURKEY	23
39	7/31/00	PARTIAL	ANCHORAGE, AK USA
40	12/25/00	PARTIAL	HOUSTON, TX USA
41	6/21/01	TOTAL	LUSAKA, ZAMBIA	24
42	12/14/01	ANNULAR	PUNTA ARENAS, COSTA RICA	25
43	6/10/02	ANNULAR	TINIAN, MARIANAS ISLANDS	26
44	12/4/02	TOTAL	CHIBUTO, MOZAMBIQUE	27
45	5/31/03	ANNULAR	OLAFSFJORDUR, ICELAND	28
46	11/23/03	TOTAL	ANTARCTICA	29
47	10/14/04	PARTIAL	ANCHORAGE, AK
48	4/8/05	ANNULAR	PENONEME, PANAMA	30
49	10/3/05	ANNULAR	ALGIERS, ALGERIA	31
50	3/29/06	TOTAL	JALU, LIBYA	32
51	9/22/06	ANNULAR	KOUROU, FRENCH GUIANA	33
52	3/19/07	PARTIAL	BETHEL, AK
53	8/1/08	TOTAL	DUNHUANG, CHINA	34
54	1/26/09	ANNULAR	KEELING ISLANDS	35
55	7/22/09	TOTAL	WUHAN, CHINA	36
56	1/15/10	ANNULAR	GULU, UGANDA	37
57	7/11/10	TOTAL	HIKUERU, FRENCH POLYNESIA	38
58	1/4/11	PARTIAL	LONDON, UK
59	6/1/11	PARTIAL	LONDON, UK
60	5/21/12	ANNULAR	TOKYO, JAPAN (& SPRINGDALE, UTAH)	39
61	11/14/12	TOTAL	MOUNT CARBINE, AUSTRALIA	40
62	5/10/13	ANNULAR	TARAWA, KIRIBATI	41
63	11/3/13	TOTAL	ATLANTIC OCEAN	42
64	10/23/14	PARTIAL	CHURCHILL, CANADA
65	3/20/15	TOTAL	SVALBARD, NORWAY	43
66	3/9/16	TOTAL	PACIFIC OCEAN, MICRONESIA	44
67	9/1/16	ANNULAR	IYAI, TANZANIA	45
68	2/26/17	ANNULAR	VILLA SIMPSON, CHILE	46
69	8/21/17	TOTAL	GRAND ISLAND, NEBRASKA, USA	47
70	2/15/18	PARTIAL	SANTIAGO, CHILE
71	7/13/18	PARTIAL	MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
72	8/11/18	PARTIAL	JESSHEIM, NORWAY
73	1/6/19	PARTIAL	SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
74	7/2/19	TOTAL	PACIFIC OCEAN	48
75	12/26/19	ANNULAR	INDIA	49