Total Solar Eclipse in the South Pacific July 11, 2010
NASA Information on the Eclipse"
Eclipse predictions (maps) courtesy of Fred Espenak
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Weather & Conditions
Cloud predictions for the path
The Eclipser site contains Weather conditions
including average cloud conditions, predictions and detailed maps for a solar eclipse track.
That site is maintained by Jay Anderson.
Maps & Data
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The actual coordinates of our eclipse site were:
Lat: 50° 23' 30" S
Long: 72° 18' 49" W
Elevation: 979m
Totality: 2' 45"
Review
Wow! What a great eclipse!
We defied all the odds, weather, very low angle and terrain to see the total eclipse!!!
Weather was perfect - absolutely cloudless and clear crisp air - but very cold at about -8C or so in El Calafate on the valley floor with a real feel of -12C. At 1000m were we viewed the eclipse it must have been around -15C to -20C but nobody cared.
We were taken to a 1000m (3000ft) plateau overlooking El Calafate and the huge Argentina Lake towards the west where the sun was very low in the sky above the plateau on the other side of the 10 Km wide glacial valley.
The eclipse was spectacular and 2m45s long. Seeing it cradled in the glacial mountains across a huge valley and glistening on the lake was awesome. The corona was vivid with a deep golden hue and the cone shaped shadow crossed the valley floor at 1400kph! We saw shadow bands on the snow (no sheet required!) and the diamond flash at the end of the total eclipse was intense and lasted an unusually long time.
We have fallen in love with Patagonia and in particular El Calafate (a real gem of a town of about 17000 people) on the edge of the glacial lake. The day before the eclipse we drove in icy conditions to the Moreno Glacier - absolutely huge 4 km wide Glacier with sapphire blue cliffs 60m high 'falling' into 2 huge mirror-like lakes. Just stunningly beautiful.
Photographs
Thoes of you who know me understand that I don't take photos of eclipses believing that there are many more talented people with great equipment who are generally willing to share them. I prefer to enjoy the experience!
One such person is Canadian eclipse chaser David Makepeace of Eclipseguy.com who has kindly agreed for me to link his awesome HD video of the eclipse here:
The Eclipseguy Raw HD video of the 2010 TSE
Here are 3 fabulous photos courtesy of Eclipseguy.com - click on the images for higher resolution images.
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Last updated: August 15, 2010