The Total Solar Eclipse of November 3rd 1994           Martin Mobberley
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At 6am on Friday October 28th, my Father and I started the journey to
Peru and Chile for the November 3rd Total Solar Eclipse. It was my
second eclipse trip, but the Hawaii eclipse in July '91 had been a
complete disaster with thick cloud obscuring totality.
We flew via Amsterdam and Aruba (a small island north of Venezuela) to
the Peruvian capital, Lima. In the subsequent days we tracked South by
coach and train through various places of interest; most notably the
lost city of the Inca's (obviously, no longer lost!) at Machu Picchu.
On several nights we were treated to clear skies from the darkest of sites
and were able to feast our eyes on the Magellanic Clouds and an upside-down
Orion as well as other Southern Hemisphere showpieces.
We were on Explorer's Tours itinerary KL2, one of 12 itineraries
available. As with all the explorers eclipse expeditions we were
constantly joining with and separating from other groups from day to day
and old friends from the BAA and previous holidays came and went.
I was particularly pleased to discover that Ken Medway (the prolific
H-Alpha Solar Observer) was in our group.
Group KL1 met with near disaster when their KLM flight from Amsterdam
clipped the runway on take off; their DC-10, The Amy Johnson, was
rather fittingly replaced by The Florence Nightingale.Remarkably,
Brian McGee of Explorer's managed to salvage their entire schedule
despite the loss of a whole day.
The KL1 group included John Mason, Nick Hewitt and Alan Heath.
(Our DC-10 there and back was the Francois Chopin).
For the eclipse itself there were two observing sites one just North of
the Peru/Chile border (reached from Tacna) and one just South of the Peru/
Chile border (reached from Arica). The 'Tacna' site was at a modest 8,000
feet asl and the 'Arica' site at over 14,000 feet!
On the evening of November 1st we said goodbye to most of our KL2 party
(who had opted for the Tacna site) and seven of us from KL2 plus a few
others from other groups crossed the border. Our group of seven consisted
of my Father and myself, husband and wife micro-biologists from Edinburgh,
Eclipse-chaser George Le Couteur from Guernsey and Brian May (Lead
Guitarist of Queen!!) plus his friend Tom Short.
In charge of the mini-bus for Explorer's was Nick Hewitt (BAA Deep Sky
Section Director) and space artist David Hardy was also on board.
A diverse bunch of people with one thing in common; we all wanted to see
this Solar Eclipse.
After a bizarre couple of hours at the two stage border post (during which
Brian May's Peruvian oranges were confiscated) we arrived at the splendid
Hotel Arica where we finally met up with John Mason, Hazel McGee and Mike
Maunder. We had just missed the departure of Patrick Moore but our minibus
must have passed his on the Arica-Tacna road an hour earlier.
Sadly, we later learnt that Patrick's camera equipment and traveller's
cheques were stolen in Tacna, just prior to the eclipse.
John Mason warned us on arrival that although Peru was 5 hours behind GMT,
Peru was only 3, so we quickly rushed off to the hotel bathrooms to avoid
the 11pm hot water shutoff deadline.

Most of the next day at Arica was spent asleep or resting in preparation
for the 170 km journey up the Andes starting at midnight.
That evening, John Mason phoned the Met. Office at Bracknell for a weather
update on the route from Arica to Putre and as far East as the Bolivian
border. They advised us to stay well away from Bolivia as there were
thunderstorms over the Andes and some of the cloud was spilling over into
Chile. Various plans were drawn up and John and Brian McGee (with
translators) had already discussed tactics with the Chilean Army and the
Chief of Police. As a result of this superb co-operation with the
authorities we were given top priority by the Military in a strategic
operation that Norman Schwarzkopf would have been proud of.
At 12.45 AM on the morning of the 3rd (03.45 UT), four Mercedes Diesel
powered Military troop transport buses left the Hotel Arica with 130
eclipse chasers. Leading the convoy in a Chevrolet 4x4 was Brian McGee.
All the vehicles were in radio contact with each other and they all had:-
One Army driver, one armed Army guard, one Spanish translator and one
explorer's rep. Although not the last word in comfort, the power of these
buses was nothing short of incredible, as was the skill and stamina of the
Army drivers. In total darkness, the convoy sailed past every other vehicle
on the road at speeds of up to 60 mph, up gradients as steep as 1 in 4.
The 170 km route was littered with abandoned 1970's American gas guzzlers,
jeeps and motorbikes. We must have passed 4 or 5 broken down coaches,
mainly containing Japanese amateur astronomers! Obviously no-one had
adjusted their carburettors to work at altitude!
The site of two Japanese astronomers spluttering up the Mountain on a moped
is not one I shall easily forget!

At around 12,000 feet and at 6.30 am (9.30 UT) we arrived at a military
base for some breakfast, again laid on by the military.
We had passed through the cloud base many hours earlier to cries of delight
from the passengers; disturbingly though, the skies looked hazier here.
Some people thought it was just dust from the arrival of the convoy, but
others looked worried; had we driven too far?
In addition, the air was already feeling disturbingly thin and most people
were experiecing mild headaches or worse. Two people collapsed at the
base and were attended to by Nick Hewitt (the Tour's doctor).
Several people had pocket altimeters which confirmed that we had reached
the 12,000 foot level.
As we ate our rather unusual breakfast of Coca Tea and Yoghurt, the dawn
was breaking outside.
After breakfast we woozily staggered back to the buses - one of the buses
went back down to lower altitude with the illest people and the rest
ploughed onward and upward. Our bus,led by John Mason led the way to even
thinner air.
By now it was approaching 8.00am (11.00 UT) and after a further half
hour's drive to 14,000 feet John spotted an ideal plateau to use as an
observing site. The view was totally unreal. We were now in the Lacuna
National Park and in the direction of the Sun there were two snow capped
volcanoes, actually smoking!!
The bus pulled in at about 8.10 am (11.10 UT) and we quickly set up our
equipment in bitterly cold conditions. We were all shaking with cold but
somehow the adrenalin of anticipation was compesating for the thin air.
Within a few minutes of us setting up, first contact occurred: IT HAD
STARTED!

After setting up my equipment I started videoing the scene for the latest
TA Video. Despite the cold and frantic activity everyone seemed happy to
chat about their equipment.
My Celestron C90 was loaded with Fuji Velvia and the video camera was now
sporting a 5x teleconverter plus mylar filter.
A look around the sky was generally encouraging; there was some very wispy
cirrus-like cloud with huge expanses of pure light-blue in-between.
As second contact approached I dragged John Mason away from the pack so I
could get his sound commentary on the video as totality neared.
John's strategy this time was to observe purely visually, semi-dark adapting
with dark glasses to get the quickest possible view of the corona after
second contact.
As the minutes ticked by, the Sun disturbingly drifted into the wispy
cirrus which had moved towards the east. The whole of the cloud near the
Sun turned white and disturbing memories of Hawaii in '91 flooded back.
With a couple of minutes to go the light level, already quite eerie started
dropping smoothly, like someone had connected a light dimmer to the sky.
Turning away from the Sun, to the West, John spotted the extreme edge of
the Moon's shadow coming and I deftly removed the Mylar filters from
C90 and video camera and fully opened the video iris with 40 seconds to go.
A wild guess at the effect of the thin cloud prompted a 4x increase in the
planned diamond ring exposure from 1/125 to 1/30th. I started firing off
exposures for the first diamond ring.
As I checked the C90 and Canon T-70 viewfinders (which were white with the
last seconds of sunlight) I heard an ecstatic cry from John and looked up
to see a textbook totally eclipsed Sun and staggering detail in the Corona.
I was unable to comprehend where the cloud had gone but John later said that
the Sun had drifted into the thinnest part as totality occurred; even so, it
is still a mystery to me - I can only assume that it was at such a high
altitude that it was'nt cloud as we know it!
It took a few seconds for me to grasp that I really was seeing Totality.
The corona was far, far brighter than I expected and the sky was far from
dark. The fine detail in the corona was easy to see within seconds of
totality and closely resembled the very finest composite photographs in
the November '94 Sky & Telescope. These details were even visible on the
Canon's ground glass screen! I grabbed my 8x21 binoculars and examined the
staggering detail; it just did'nt seem real - it was like pouring over a
colour photograph that someone had pinned on the sky!
Conscious that there were only two minutes left I adjusted the video and
C-90 mounts to re-center the Sun. All around me there people were spotting
other phenomena - the phase of Venus in binoculars, Jupiter, Sirius etc..
As this was obviously a photographic opportunity second to none, but I had
no idea what effect the 'invisible' cloud was having, I decided to go
through the whole range of exposures from 2 seconds to 1/125th. The motor
wind on the Canon plus the LCD panel/push button exposure change made this
a painless process. After 30 seconds of photography I resumed with the
binoculars for a good long stare. Suddenley, I spotted a red prominence
near the very top of the Sun, a sign that the top half was not far from
emerging. Shortly after, a red arc was just visible along the lunar limb -
surely, the eclipse was'nt over already! But it was, there were only 15
seconds left; I quickly checked the exposure setting and kept my finger
on the electric shutter release. The diamond ring was seconds away and I
just kept shooting, making sure to watch this part visually.
John shouted "Here it comes" and to whoops and cries a surprisingly long,
distinctly orange, diamond ring signalled the end of this spectacle.
The (just under) 3 minutes had seemed like 30 seconds and for a few seconds
I forgot that the Sun was now shining straight into the Canon and Video
Camera!!
Quickly, taking the teleconverter off I video'd the eclipse chasers.
The scene was one of mass congratulation, moist eyes, back slapping and
thanks to John for getting us to a good site.
John rated the eclipse as second only to the 1991 event. In his opinion
the corona's shape was as expected at Solar minimum but the brightness
and intricate detail was better than we could have hoped for.

My immediate thoughts after the eclipse were that they are a feast to
be savoured visually, but ideally with some sort of automated 'hands-off'
photographic and video recording system. They are far too short to spend
them glued to a viewfinder; but they also need to be recorded to play back
over and over again at leisure - the memory of the event soon fades.

After the elation had passed the lack of oxygen and rapidly rising
temperature started to really knock us all for six and we all felt
absolutely desperate to get back to the hotel, 170 kms, 14000 feet
and five hours away. Our heads were now throbbing, we had been up all
night and were hot and sweaty and the roaring of the Mercedes engine as
the bus ploughed thru the barren boulder-strewn Atacama was all too much.
I have never wanted ANYTHING so badly then to get back to sea level, the
hotel and a shower.
After a 14 hour round trip we finally got back to Arica at 2.45 PM and
John led a thunderous round of applause for the awesome skill of the
Chilean Army bus driver (who bore a certain resemblance to Saddam Hussein!)
He looked quite bemused as he watched thirty-five near dead tourists
crawl off the bus.

We later learnt that the Tacna party had also seen the Eclipse although
the first half of totality was, apparently hindered by cloud.

Despite our exhausting day, after a good nights sleep the talk the next day
on the 33 hour Arica-Tacna-Lima-Aruba-Amsterdam-Heathrow trip was of India
in '95!!!!!

Martin Mobberley