An Eclipse Chaser’s Tale: February 16, 1980

Among astronomers, Eclipse Chasers are generally defined as those lucky enough and well-financed enough to travel the globe, placing themselves in the moon’s shadow wherever and whenever it falls. Some witness dozens of these stunning events during a lifetime. Me, well not so much. I’ve witnessed exactly one. Yet I am an “Eclipse Chaser” of a sort, nonetheless.

The glow of the Solar Corona During Totality All Photos by Harry Hammond.

Dirt roads in the bush of Africa can be notoriously lumpy, carved with ridges, and scalloped with potholes galore. Bouncing around in a safari-style van, we steered from village to village in the Southern corner of Kenya, seeking our quarry of clear skies. No matter the discomfort, though; totality was approaching, and we still could not dodge the thin morning clouds overhead while staying within the predicted path of totality. Our driver, a local called “Eddie” was a native Kikuyu, and knew his way around; we trusted him to make the best guesses at where we would find clear skies. As we quite literally bounced up and down, to and fro, we occasionally stuck our heads out windows, peering through handheld solar filters to get a look at the partial phases. We checked our watches nervously. We needed to pick a site soon.

Moon Eclipsing the Sun.

With perhaps 30 minutes until totality, we skidded to a dusty stop in a remote village and chose a clearing near a sagging and well-worn schoolhouse to set up equipment. Our group ranged in experience from neophytes to experts, and gear ranged from the simple naked eye to plastic-covered Mylar filters to sophisticated astrographs. At 11:19 local time, we experienced what we came to see. It was four-plus minutes of incredible sensation. Observing totality is, well, surreal. Breathtaking, moving, life-changing; all you’ve read about, and more.

As the moon continued past totality and partial phases resumed, the local school kids (perhaps aged six to ten) happily celebrated with us. One of the most memorable experiences of the entire trip was watching these youngsters see the eclipse through a telescope. Invariably, as the view settled in the eyepiece, they would give a shriek of excitement, pull back, laugh uproariously, and begin dancing. What a delight! A dozen or more barefoot, raucous kids running in circles, jumping, laughing, and shrieking joyously. They had just witnessed the unreal, the magical.

Solar Prominences During Totality.

You do not have to travel to Kenya or any other exotic locale to see next year’s solar eclipse. If you live in the United States, on August 21, 2017, will find a host of “Eclipse Chasers” heading for the 70-mile wide path of the moon’s shadow as it travels almost diagonally across the U.S., from Oregon to South Carolina. Those outside this path will see the sun partially obscured by the moon, the amount dependent on the observer's distance from the centerline. You can chase this one on modern, four-lane highways. Don’t miss it.

Information on solar eclipses, along with a century’s worth of scheduling can be found on eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Harry Hammond
Mashpee, MA

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Checkbook Astronomy

Held annually under the dark August skies of Springfield Vermont, a large gathering of amateur telescope makers unfolds on weekends chosen to coincide with the Perseid meteor shower. Called Stellafane, this “Shrine to the Stars” happening is attended by thousands of amateurs from around the world. They are all hoping to get in some dark-sky observing and admire telescopes designed and fabricated by others. This is all conducted in a friendly outdoor-camping, "down-home" atmosphere (which belies all the genius and mind-boggling technology at hand).

1990 Stellafane Convention - Springfield, Vermont.

In the late seventies, during a Stellafane's Friday night “Under the Tent Talks” sharing, I had the good pleasure of hearing a relative newcomer to the world of amateur astrophotographers. He had quickly zoomed nearly to the limit of what one could do with amateur gear, and his inspiring work was showing up in Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazines. His name was David Healy, and he was from Long Island, NY.

David stepped behind the modest podium and said respectfully to the assembly of mega-nerds, “I am not a telescope maker (huh? This is Stellafane!), I am a telescope BUYER.” The audience was caught off-guard and cracked up. He then went on to explain how his astrophotos were made with gear he had purchased. It was a talk graced with wit, insight, and plenty of self-effacing humor.

Hey, who has not lusted over those shiny Schmidt-Cass telescopes, CCD cameras, and exotic telescope mounts, jumping from the full-color pages of astronomy mags? But oh those prices! Gonna cost you to crank out dramatic astrophotos, son! David Healy candidly admitted he had the dough, being a NY-based stockbroker/analyst. But he lacked fabrication skills and hit the hobby head-on with his checkbook, with superb results.

I have always been scratching for funds to do astronomy. It’s just the way it is. No sour grapes toward Mr. Healy or anyone else who can afford big-ticket toys, particularly if they are used as productively as David’s were.

But for me, there is a significant upside to being a "bucks down" amateur. Maybe I can make what I need. If you think there are limits to the telescopes and gear that can be made by nonprofessionals, take a trip to Stellafane, or browse the pages of Sky and Telescope to nix that notion. True, I had a decent scope that I had saved up, to serve as the platform for my system. What I needed but could not afford, were costly accessories to create long-focus color shots of galaxies, nebulae, and clusters.

Many of my homemade projects cannot be described in detail here, but they were necessary items, like a permanent scope pier, gear racks, a heated dew cap, modest electrical gear, and the like. One particularly rewarding item was a “cold camera”, which chilled film with dry ice during exposures to enhance light response. (These were pre-CCD days!) Challenges to keeping the film dry (but cold), handling film under the night sky, and developing exposed color film chips all had to be overcome. But they were.

And there is the nub. Sure it's exciting as ever to open that FedEx package to extract the astronomical treasures therein. But how about “rolling your own” once in a while? Let’s get our hands dirty because benefits abound. An accessory that you’ve designed, constructed, and put to successful use can be a source of immense pride. I still take joy in the fact that Astronomy Magazine used an article and photos I put together describing the construction of the aforementioned dew cap, to produce a three-page feature color article on it! Best of all, that dew cap worked beautifully. Total cash outlay? Ten bucks.

I guess one could call that piggy bank astronomy.

Harry Hammond
Mashpee, MA

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Old Dogs and New Tricks

As Mike Petrasko shared in "A Pilgrim's Progress" right here on Insight Observatory, we recently had the pleasure of delivering a talk at a local library, outlining our experiences with amateur astronomy over the last 30-plus years. While composing the astrophotography content of the talk, one thing was glaringly apparent: things have changed!

Celestron 8" Telescope Prime Focus Astrophotography 

Setup Circa 1995 - Photograph by Jefferey R. Charles

So, at the risk of sounding like the old-timer who laments "well, back in MY day....", it might be worth noting the differences between taking an amateur astrophoto before robotic telescopes, and after, now that the process can be entirely automated. Back in the day, unless you were operating a sophisticated observatory telescope, there was no scrolling menu to pick desired objects to observe, no automatic telescope alignment, no automatic correction to telescope tracking errors, etc. Spending an hour or more with your eyeball glued to a guide star while the exposure was underway (to correct for tracking errors) was par for the course. (And of course, this assumes one actually had the object framed in the camera.) Handling film pieces, strips or rolls carelessly could destroy a whole night's efforts.

Modern equipment available to the amateur has streamlined these tasks immensely. With accurate alignment provided by the newer amateur scopes and mounts, one need not even SEE the object. If you have selected an object from the telescope's large library (THOUSANDS of choices), you can be sure the mount has slewed to the correct location. Cameras for astrophotography have kept pace too. No more struggling with accurate focus, loading film, changing filters, monitoring shutter time, etc.

Let's take a look at how an image was acquired in the "old" days, perhaps circa 1995. Start with careful set-up and accurate polar alignment of the telescope. Focus on an available star (sometimes a marathon of frustration in itself!). Acquire the object to be photographed in the field of view, assuming it can be seen (otherwise, just how good are your setting circles?). Find a guide star nearby, bright enough to do the job and center the guiding optics on it. Take a deep breath to let all vibration settle down, then open the shutter with the cable release. Now just, er, relax! Only an hour or so of awkward close monitoring of the guide star with tiring eyes, cross-hairs, correcting motors, and joystick...

Modern Remote Robotic Telescope
For Astrophotography

Well, as satisfying as results could be from those techniques, modern, robotic, and remotely managed telescopes are the rage. How about sitting at a nice warm desk, picking an object from a computer program, kicking off an automated process, hitting the sack, and waking in the morning to find a knockout astrophoto, (or two or more, even of different objects) sitting in your inbox? You can learn how to accomplish dramatic results through Insight Observatory's partnering with iTelescope, using robotic telescopes located in dark skies in the U.S., Spain, and Australia.

Yep, there is a bit of nostalgic romance when doing things the old way. But this Old Dog likes the best of both worlds. I still like to get out under the night sky, but I now leave the cold temps and no-sleep marathon sessions to iTelescope's New Tricks, using world-class gear.

Remote control and remote imaging are here to stay, and the results stand for themselves.

Harry Hammond
Mashpee, MA

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