Sky & Telescope - August 2024 - 64

The Great 2024 Eclipse
and I had made. We waited breathlessly as the golden crescent
in our eclipse glasses thinned - not least because I wasn't sure
whether we would see the corona through the clouds. I needn't
have worried! The corona was surprisingly bright, with several
streamers framing the Sun. At the 5 o'clock position, a brilliant
pink prominence appeared to leap off the edge of the Moon.
Minutes became seconds, and the diamond ring reappeared.
CASUAL SNAPS Sky & Telescope eclipse-cruise coleader (and former
Editor in Chief) Rick Fienberg lies back to photograph the partial phases
of the eclipse from the deck of the MS Zaandam off the coast of Mexico.
of totality overhead. Silky spikes of eerie silvery-yellow corona
crowned the black disk of the Moon. People were shouting and
screaming for joy, which for me only magnified the eclipse's
tremendous emotional impact.
No one who saw totality will forget the brilliant, hot-pink
prominence along the southwestern lunar limb. I've observed the
Sun in hydrogen-alpha light many times, but this single, massive
" tongue of flame " appeared far brighter and more vivid than
any filtered prominence. Jupiter and Venus were obvious in the
watercolor-blue sky.
Incredibly, totality seemed to last a long time - something
I've never experienced before. And when totality had passed, I
wanted to hug everyone, and proceeded to do so! I can't tell you
how good that felt.
On shore, News Editor Monica Young was positioned with
her family in Mazatlán, where high, thin clouds did nothing
to mar the view:
Partial phases were clearly visible and created crescent shapes
beneath palm trees and through the eclipse art my daughter
Texas Totality
The Moon's shadow continued to race northeast and crossed
the border into the United States, where several S&T staffers
made their stands in various locations. Much like in Mexico,
thicker clouds threatened to put a damper on the show in the
very places that long-range predictions had suggested would
have the best weather prospects.
Senior Editor Kelly Beatty reported that the attendees on
S&T's tour to Fredericksburg, Texas, feared that a massive
storm system would wipe out their viewing chances:
Rain was all but certain. But with each day came a slightly
better forecast, and by the time we arrived at our private
viewing site, the optimism was palpable as low clouds dissipated
and revealed big swaths of blue sky.
After nice early views of the partial phases, thicker clouds
returned. The situation looked bad. Then, almost miraculously,
a thinning overhead let us witness the first diamond ring,
followed by veiled but still-dramatic views throughout totality.
All too soon, towering prominences on the western limb heralded
the second diamond ring. And, with that, the cloudy curtain
closed and ended the show, leaving nothing but impenetrable
gray overhead.
I still don't know what caused the clouds to part, but deep down
we all knew that Mother Nature had done us a great favor.
Some 130 km to the west, the situation played out differPERIODIC
SEQUENCE Stages of the eclipse from shortly after first contact (far left) through totality and nearing fourth contact (far right) as seen
from Dardanelle, Arkansas. Each image was captured through an Astro-Physics 92-mm Stowaway refractor at f/5.3 with a Canon 70D camera.
64 AUGUST 2024 * SKY & TELESCOPE
CASUAL SNAPS: BOB KING; ECLIPSE STAGES: SEAN WALKER

Sky & Telescope - August 2024

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