This will be my fourth total solar eclipse! The first was deep in the Sarir in Libya on March 29, 2006. The next was an aerial interception over Taylor Island, Nunavut (near Cambridge Bay) at 27,000 ft on August 1, 2008. The last one was observed shipboard NE of Iwo Jima in the Pacific on July 22, 2009.
In the days leading up to these eclipses the tension rises, anxiety follows. Is everything packed? Will my observing equipment work properly (and my equipment is pretty simple stuff compared to others)? Will there be transportation glitches? Will political problems disallow us from reaching our destination? Will there be health threats, like the H1N1 quarantine in China in 2009? Will the weather cooperate with clear skies? Will i be in the zone? Moving towards a climactic finish, every 18 months on average for a few short minutes under the Shadow of the Moon! As Quebec eclipse chaser Jean-Marc LaRiveria remarked: It is probably an addiction, or maybe an affliction, but it is a way of life!
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