AS with all hobbies, when it comes to astronomy, there are several levels of interest. Some go out to dark sites and watch the stars and planets go by, others are happy to sit in a nice, cozy armchair and read up on the latest discoveries.
There is, however, a small group of astronomers that some might say are crazy. They travel to distant and God-forsaken parts of the world, breaking baggage weight allowances at every airport they encounter, sometimes risking life and limb to get there. 'There' being a particular point on the earth's surface, where, for all-too brief moments, they can stand in the shadow of the Moon during a Total Solar Eclipse. These astronomers are often called (along with crazy!) 'Eclipse Chasers'.
Solar eclipses happen on average twice a year, often at places, which are totality inhospitable or impossible to get to - such as the Antarctic or mid Pacific Ocean. Every now and then, however, they pass over a stretch of land that you might be able to get to, but then the weather might get the better of you.
Once a month the Sun and the Moon pass each other in the sky, but during an eclipse the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun and by a complete fluke of nature the Moon is very slightly bigger then the Sun as seen from here, so it completely blocks it out.
Daytime turns to a dark twilight as the shadow cast by the moon races thousand of miles across the surface of the Earth at nearly 3,000kph. This thin shadow can be less then 60 miles wide, so you need to be within a few miles of the centre of this path to get the best effect and this is where 'eclipse chasers' aim to be.
The problem with a solar eclipse is that, once you have seen one, you want to see more. Solar eclipses by their nature are fleeting and last, at most, eight minutes, and on average between two and four minutes.
In 1999, I chased one eclipse spending a week in Paris and then travelling to the city of Metz on the day hoping to view the event. Unfortunately, it was clouded over and I missed it. This is the chance that eclipse chasers take.
It didn't dampen my enthusiasm and in May 2006, a group of us from Shannonside Astronomy Club in Limerick, travelled to Antalya in Turkey to view the solar eclipse there, (taking in a week's holidays to boot) and on that occasion we were fortunate enough to see it.
Thus emboldened, we were planning our next eclipse trip as soon as the sun re-emerged. We looked up when the next solar eclipse would be and saw it was starting in the Artic, going through Siberia and on to Mongolia, finishing up in China. At first we laughed this off as being too remote an eclipse to travel to, but, after a little more investigation we found out that one of Russia's biggest cities was slap bang in the middle of the eclipse path!
The city, Novosibirsk, was one of the Soviet Union's centres for nuclear research and you would not have found it on any map 30 years ago. Not exactly a popular tourist destination!
We discovered Siberian Airlines fly out of Dublin to Moscow and then from Moscow to Novosibirsk. We then found hotels in both cities, so the trip looked viable. The real obstacle with this eclipse was the weather. The odds of clear skies were 50/50 and many people backed out when they discovered this. In the end just two of us from the club decided to go - yours truly and our club secretary Frank Ryan.
Frank took little convincing as he had caught the bug after viewing the 1999 eclipse from a ship off the coast of Brittany. So we booked the flights and hotels and got Russian visas (after a monster paper trail!) from the embassy in Dublin early this year.
So at 3pm on Wednesday July 30, laden with astronomical and photographic gear and pretty much nothing else we headed for Dublin stopping over in Monasterevin to pick up two more eclipse chasers. Michael O Connell and his wife Denise, made up our group of four and we headed to the airport to catch out late night flight to Moscow.
I was unable to sleep on the plane and the last thing we all needed was the hour long queue at visa control at Moscow airport at five in the morning, a bureaucracy that has its roots back in the Soviet times.
Once through we collected our bags went for breakfast and waited for our 11.45am flight to Novosibirsk. Surprisingly that flight came on us very quickly, but the security was certainly thorough getting onto the plane, you had to step into a chamber where two rotating poles whirled around you.
Though it was like something out of Star Trek, it was, in fact, an all body x-ray machine and also gave a body image - not one for the modest.
I'd imagine such a machine would be illegal in the west and if you travelled there often I wouldn't fancy the consequences of all those x-ray doses. Still, you knew there was no chance of anything untoward getting on the plane with this system in place.
During the flight we noted that below us was almost blanket cloud the entire was between Moscow and Novosibirsk and at this stage a small bit of doubt started to creep in regarding the wisdom of the trip. We arrived in Novosibirsk at 6pm (midday Irish time), sleep deprived and shattered only to discover that the hire car was nowhere to be seen.
Luckily we discovered that taxis were extremely cheap so we took the opportunity to cancel that car. The hour long taxi journey to the hotel cost only seven euros each.
Even though they drive on the right hand side of the road, many of the cars (including our taxi) were left hand drive.
This made the taxi trip an interesting experience along the city ring road, although our ex-KGB looking driver was never fazed by the trucks sounding their horns as we drove on the wrong side of the road in some mad overtaking manoeuvres. That evening we unpacked at the 1960s Soviet hotel, ate and got some badly needed sleep.
The next morning we met up with some Greek astronomers, whose acquaintance we had recently made and worked out a plan to get to a good location to view the eclipse. It was strange to meet our new friends in such a odd setting but it made the next few hours all the more fun.
We decided on a site which was 50 km away on the north coast of the Ob Sea. This is a 200km long reservoir for the hydroelectric power station for Novosibirsk. Our initial plan was to travel southeast on the main 'Highway', which led to the China/Mongolia border.
Although we had not intended to go that far we did hear reports of American astronomers that had equipment confiscated and even reports of arrests because they did not have proper visas!
We had hired a taxi to be with us for the entire day costing only 20 euros each. On the way there, the sky started to seriously cloud over, our hearts were starting to really sink. At the site it was blanket cloud!
At one stage we seriously considered going back to the city but we decided to give it a while, as it seemed that the clouds might be starting to break. After some frantic and at times heated debate, the clouds did indeed break and an hour before the eclipse started the sky was completely clear - a miracle if ever I saw one!
At 4:43PM, cheers went up from our small group sounding the beginning of the eclipse.
We observed a tiny black bite appearing on the side of the Sun as the Moon started its transit.
Half an hour later over half of the Sun had disappeared. Our anticipation was building fast as our surroundings were now starting to take on a very strange colour and dark hue. Though it appeared like a heavily overcast day there were still strong colours and, thankfully, not a cloud in the sky.
Half an hour later again, all that was left of the Sun was a very thin crescent. Then suddenly, the Sun was transformed into a pinpoint of light as the moon started to fully block it out. As the last remnants of sunlight peeped through the craters and valleys on the Moon, for a few seconds we were treated to an awe-inspiring sight called "the diamond ring".
Then, as the shadow of the Moon totally engulfed us, the light levels dropped as if someone turned down the dial on a dimmer switch. The Sun disappeared completely leaving only its atmosphere (Corona) visible.
Fiery red prominences exploding off the surface of the Sun leading into white wisps of ejected matter stretching and twisting millions of miles out into space. It is without question one of the most breath taking views in nature.
We could see a very dark blue sky, with a dark dusk yellow all along the horizon. A jet-black disk surrounded by an eerie glow is located where the sun should be flanked in a row by the now quite visible planets Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn.
At this stage the local wildlife began to behave very strangely. Dogs in the distance howled skywards and some birds in the nearby forest decided it was time to return to roost for the 'night' and flew across the eclipsed Sun, it was very dramatic.
The temperature drop was sharp and it actually got noticeably colder during totality. An eclipse wind was also felt, adding to the spookiness of the experience. Two minutes ten seconds later it is over in a flash as the Sun starts to re-appear and light levels rocket up; someone was turning that dimmer switch back up. All too soon the greatest show on Earth was over.
We celebrated the occasion with some Russian vodka to toast good luck to the next eclipse. Over the next hour we continued to watch the moon leave the face of the sun. Our Russian drivers (who hadn't a word of English) must have thought we were totally crazy. Here are these western Europeans who have come all the way to Novosibirsk to end up driving on dirt roads next to some remote lake. Who knows what they were thinking? It seemed like they only realised what we were there for when the eclipse got underway.
We met an Irish group who had flown to Moscow and got the trans-Siberian train to Novosibirsk, a two-day train trip. We also met a group from South Africa there, their journey made ours look like a short excursion, they couldn't believe we didn't use a package deal, had no interpreter and had no more then three words of Russian between us.
On the way back to the city, it clouded over again and we all commented on just how lucky we were with the weather. That night we all went to a restaurant where they served many Russian brews, and Guinness too, so we felt quite at home.
On the flights home we passed the time planning our next solar eclipse trip which is on the east coast of China. Some are considering going to Shanghai while others are going on a dedicated eclipse cruise ship that brings you east of Japan where the weather prospects are a lot better. Whoever said these trips are cheap!
From Ireland, we heard from club members that all that was visible for the eclipse was a little chunk of the Sun blocked out, a 20% partial eclipse. Things get better in 2015 when on March 20 a 90% partial eclipse will be visible.
I'm afraid you'll have to wait until September 23, 2090 for the next total solar eclipse to be visible from Ireland. I hope our club will have an article in the Limerick Leader on the weekends before each of these events, but I suspect the latter will probably have a different author!
See the club website and message boards for more eclipse details and upcoming club events www.shannonsideastronomyclub.com.