When did you arrive in the US to watch the eclipse?
I arrived in Roswell, New Mexico on 12 October. The greeting was all I could have hoped for the airport and most of the town was adorned with green, almond-eyed aliens and mercury-coloured flying saucers! Just before dawn on eclipse day, we set out on an unforgettable road trip to Albuquerque to catch full annularity.
How was the trip to the viewing site?
Venus shone pin-sharp above the deep ochre and electric-blue skies. The Albuquerque Balloon Festival was under way at the time, and the sight of 20 or more hot air balloons - like a vivid, floating candy store - was a magnificent curtain-raiser for the astronomical clockwork set to unfold. Our taxi spotted a patch of waste ground at the side of Route 66 and we turned in.
Twenty minutes later and that first 'bite' out of the Sun began to appear. First contact was right at the top of the Sun, in the 12 o'clock position. From there, things happened quickly. The partial phases pushed forward, blotting out a pair of sunspots as they made their silent, unstoppable celestial progress.
What was it like experiencing the eclipse?
Bu hikaye BBC Sky at Night Magazine dergisinin December 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye BBC Sky at Night Magazine dergisinin December 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Unearthing galaxies in the archives
Comparing old Hubble data to today is revealing distant active galaxies
Voyager 1 is back online and exploring the unknown
An interstellar rescue brings the venerable spacecraft back after months out of action
When Haydn met the Herschels
Jonathan Powell on how the astronomer siblings inspired the famous composer
A quicker way to colourise your narrowband frames
Create a bicolour image in Siril using data from just two narrowband filters
Manhattanhenge
New York's urban island of Manhattan, with its gridiron street layout, sees summer Suns set neatly between skyscrapers. Jamie Carter explains the phenomenon
A very British eclipse
In 1927, Britain experienced its first total solar eclipse since 1724. Mike Frost looks at how, like 8 April 2024's US spectacle, eclipse fever swept the nation
The spirit of the eclipse
Eclipse chaser Yvette Cook reports on what it was like in the path of totality in Texas during 8 April's Great American Eclipse
Cosmic rays
In part two of our series, Govert Schilling looks at cosmic rays, the high-energy particles that bombard Earth from space
Stones of the SOLSTICE
Jamie Carter explores 12 ancient stones, tombs and temples across the world that align with the Sun at the solstice
Surfing spacetime with LISA
A new era of gravitational wave astronomy is on its way as the ambitious upcoming LISA space mission joins a host of huge detectors on Earth. Charlie Hoy explains
