Dry Run

Before events like eclipses that I want to image, I usually do a dry run. I suspect that most astro-nuts do the same. A couple of days ago, I set up the 5″ astrograph to take solar images. In the picture below, the smaller telescope with the silver cap is the 5″ quadruplet APO astrograph that will be my imaging instrument. The larger (10″ RC) will not be in use; it was the scope that I used for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.

I ran this exercise a few days ago – testing the tracking, imaging software, and so forth. It all went off as planned. I’ll set it all up on Monday in anticipation of the 90-120 seconds of eclipse totality, but the weather forecast calls for clouds and scattered thunderstorms. So, I may not capture anything. That’s the way it goes for these events.

In Casper Wyoming in 2017, clouds obscured the predicted eclipse intermittently. Still, we managed to capture totality during a sucker hole – a break in the clouds that gave us an unobstructed view of the event. We were lucky.

In July 1991, Susan, Nico, and I went to Oaxaca for a Total Solar Eclipse. Our driver took us from the airport to the hotel. It was late in the evening, and it was raining. I asked our driver, “How long has it been raining?” “Not long,” he replied – “Just the last five days.” We tried to console ourselves with the idea that we had planned a few days on the coast at Puerto Escondido. The next day, we flew to the coast and enjoyed five days of guided exploration of the coastal jungle, the water’s edge, and the good food and drink at our hotel.

We returned to Oaxaca a day ahead of the eclipse. It was overcast. Merde! The next morning, we had breakfast, and I set our telescope and camera up in the patio among the apartment-like accommodations. The serious eclipse pilgrims, prepped for a much-hyped harmonic convergence, had all headed for Monte Alban – an enchanting Mayan archeological site.

As the time for eclipse totality approached, the clouds parted, and we were treated to an unobstructed view of the heavens including planets that we rarely see at home – Mercury and Venus. I managed to take pictures of the sun showing solar prominences – things I had never before seen let alone recorded.

Life has many twists and turns. As Louis Pasteur is said to have pronounced, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” That is why we do dry runs.