There was not a cloud in the sky for five days before Eclipse Day, which made me nervous. However, Thursday, June 21 was cloudless (as were Friday and Saturday!) Eight perfect days in a row. The only threat to the eclipse was a fire burning to the west of us which broke out right about the time of first contact. By the way, there were A LOT of fires burning in Zambia. It's the dry season and the grass around there looks like California in September.
While most of the eclipse chasers were in Chisamba, north of Lusaka and on the centerline, we decided to view the eclipse from the Lilayi Lodge. It was a tough call: 2:53 of totality was a 5-minute Land Rover ride away, while Chisamba got 3:32 of totality but required approximately 90 minutes' driving time, not including Lusaka traffic. Out of the fourteen people in our group, twelve of us opted to stay close to "home". Only two, Anne and Bryan from London, decided to go to Chisamba. All parties ended up happy.
We viewed the eclipse from a corn field which could have just as easily passed for Iowa or Indiana as Zambia.
Location: Lilayi, Zambia
15deg 31min 58.1sec S, 28deg 17min 59.7sec E
First contact was approximately 11:42 UTC. There were a lot of sunspots -- most were on the western side of the sun and were covered within the first 45 minutes or so. A moderate breeze was blowing during the entire eclipse and the surroundings slowly got darker. About 15 minutes before totality, we projected a myriad of crescent suns onto a white sheet with the aid of a tightly-woven basket. As totality grew near, I was primarily interested in shadow bands, which I first spotted at 13:09:07 UTC. I noticed them against the mowed-down corn field and pointed them out to the rest of the group. I then took a quick look for the approaching shadow, but did not see it. Subsequent conversations revealed that no one in our camp had seen the approaching shadow. Looking for shadow bands and the approaching umbra meant that I missed out on Baily's beads (again) -- wait'll next year! The second-contact diamond ring was spotted at 13:09:16, followed by Jupiter at 13:09:23. Totality began at 13:09:29!
A huge prominence was seen at 3 oclock (in reference to the Sun's disk).
My most vivid memory of totality was looking at the eclipsed Sun through my ST90 at 20X. The prominences were huge and magenta-colored, the inner corona was a lot brighter than I had imagined it would be and the wispy coronal streamers and filaments emanating from the Sun were incredible!!!
I took a quick look around at the 360-degree sunset. Very nice, but not as vivid as 1999 in Hungary. Also, it did not get as dark as it did in Hungary. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a time-watching mix-up: thinking I had about a minute of totality left, I then took a quick look at Sirius and searched for Canopus. This took a few seconds. Next, I took a last look at the horizon all the way around. Cool. As I turned westward to burn the sight of the eclipsed Sun hanging in the sky into my memory, the third contact diamond ring popped out. Oh, no!!!! Not yet!!! I tried in vain to hold on to the last moments of totality as I began snapping the shutter to record the end of the eclipse. Too short. They're always too short.
Totality ended at 13:12:22. Strangely enough, the moderate breeze that blew during the eclipse was absent during totality. The breeze picked up again after third contact. It seemed to get a lot brighter quickly. The eeriness of the minutes leading up to totality were not repeated after third contact. That's how it seemed, anyway.
In looking back at the pictures, I managed to capture the "double" diamond ring that was present prior to second contact. A member of my group caught this on video and I was hoping that my stills would show this somewhat rare effect. I'm pleased with the way the pictures turned out, but none is as stunning as the third contact diamond ring encircled in clouds that I took on 11 August 1999 in Hungary. I'll have that photo at the party as well.
More on the Zodiacal Light, Jewel Box, Magellanic Clouds, Coal Sack, 47 Tucanae, Omega Centauri and the Eta Carina Nebula later...