by Julius Szakacs
Me and my wife went to Chabot Observatories to view the 2002 Eclipse. I took the TV Pronto with me, but never set it up. There were plenty of telescopes to look into. Observation was in the back of Chabot, at the two large refractor, it was open for the public.
About half of dozen or more scopes were set-up and a large crowd swirling around them. Two TV station were out CH.7 and CH.3 recording the event, which we watched later on the 11 o'clock news. Only famous person I recognized is Bryan H...? the weather man, I think.
We went to see a planetarium show at 5:30 PM, (20min) they were talking about why is the eclipse occurs and why is it a rare event. It was interesting and very visual, 3D like. Than we went back to the eclipse observation, to see it through the telescopes. All though, anywhere I walked in the building there was a TV screen showing it real time, I think they were even web casting it also. I took a few pictures of the eclipse, with my digital camera and a glass solar filter hold in front of it, something for memorabilia.
One the picture, the boy with the red shirt was on the news. The eclipse was projected on his shirt with a noodle strainer. Looked neat, nice pattern. We had a fun late afternoon, thinking another 10 years before it happens again in the Bay Area.
See the photos:
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/gysz/lst?&.dir=/Eclips2002&.src=bc&.view=l