Total Solar Eclipse 2019 Chile — vincecianfichi.com

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After an early morning bus ride to our viewing location, we were greeted by local Chileans at a rural campground. Our hosts began cooking us a very nice lunch of local cuisine. The Pisco Sours were drunk as smooth as they were delicious. But as the early afternoon wore on I became nervous, as my son and I still had to set up our equipment, check it, double check it, and be ready to start with “film” and photos. We made our way onto a dirt road between a couple of farm crops across the road from the campground. This we had to do, as the view of the Sun from the campground was obscured by - trees! It was windy, chilly, with a slight haze in the air. And clear skies!! Not one cloud! Everything was in place with about 20 minutes until the start of the eclipse. Months of preparation and planning and finally we made it, 10 hours flight from home, opposite hemisphere, on another continent. And, well, here we were with the sky starting to become strange looking. The shadows started getting weird. Well into the partial phases of the total solar eclipse (TSE), C2 was approaching fast. My son snapped his own photos with his Nikon, comfortably camped out under a blanket with his tripod.

C2, or Contact 2, is the moment the last bit of sunlight disappears behind the new moon, when Totality begins. For the next 2 minutes and 16 seconds, I methodically snapped frame after frame of the diamond ring effect, Baileys Beads, the inner, middle and outer regions of the Corona. Well choreographed I thought to myself, after having practiced the routine back in Pennsylvania. And I’m just an amateur, but there is so much information out there on photographing a TSE that a little effort plus plenty of preparation will guide an ambitous amateur solar astronomer quite well. Do you like the results below? I was very happy with them.

C3 is Contact 3, signifying the end of Totality. A fading Corona, and the appearance of Baileys Beads and the diamond ring effect occur in reverse and then daylight quickly comes back to life. It’s over! We did it! Got to see it, photograph it and experience the overwhelming, powerful and grounding effect this natural phenomenon has on humans.

Then reality sets in. Having just bagged my second TSE in my life, the rarity of this incredible celestial event is confirmed by the number of TSE’s that will occur in the future. In the next 7 years, through the year 2026, there will only be 4 more TSE’s. That includes one in Anarctica, one in Greenland, and of course the next one going across the United States in April of 2024. The fourth one mentioned above occurs, incredibly, in Chile and Argentina again!! This one will be in their Summer season, further south than the 2019 TSE. And the last one to occur in South American until 2045!! Total Solar Eclipses are a rare event indeed.

The plan is to attend the TSE in Chile in December 2020. It will be my third TSE. Preparations are under way in early 2020. Meanwhile, please enjoy my photos below from the 2019 event. Also, please visit this page from time to time for updates…because…

My plan is to use my photos (in RAW format) to create a composite image of the Corona. This is a project that I have long wanted to begin, and will happen hopefully in the Spring of 2020. I will learn how to use Photoshop, work with RAW images, and create a composite of the Sun’s coronal streamers showing the wispy veil of nebulosity from the Sun’s edge all the way out into space where it fades to black.

Clear skies, friend!

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