Bengt Arne Alfredsson

After 1991, Bengt took a long break from eclipse chasing while he completed his M. Sc. in radiophysics at the Onsala Radio Observatory in Sweden. His thesis topic was originally related to GPS and communication and tracking of high-flying scientific balloons. This project didn't work out and so he switched to a thesis where he created a computer network at Onsala to assist with porting radio telescope receiver data from mini main frames to Macintosh computers for post analysis and publication.

Just after finishing up his masters thesis he decided to catch the Trans-Siberian Railway to Chita, Siberia, west of Lake Baikal, to observe the March 1997 total solar eclipse. Prior to leaving Sweden and while planning the trip, he wrote to a university physics department in Chita on Onsala Observatory letterhead. It wasn't a deliberate deception, but they formed the impression that he was a distinguished senior academic from Onsala observatory. On arrival at Chita, they rolled out the red carpet for him. At Chita during this eclipse, Bengt met Glenn Schneider, Joel Moskowitz, and Craig Small for the first time.

Following this eclipse, he chased two more, travelling to El Vinculo, Venezuela in February 1998 and then to the Black Sea Coast at a resort north of Varna, Bulgaria in August 1999. In Bulgaria, Bengt was surprised that, at the location he chose, not only were there no eclipse chasers, but that nobody on the beach at the resort was even aware that the eclipse was in progress until he showed them through his eclipse glasses.

Professionally and personally, he had now taken up residence in Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city and using his background in communications technology, began working for a private company that designed and built security & communication systems for large scale facilities such as mines, ports, & factories.

In May 2001, Bengt made a post to the solar eclipse mailing list asking if anybody wanted to team up with him in Zambia. I was in the midst of making a late decision to chase this eclipse and replied to his post. We met up for the first time in Zambia, observed an amazing eclipse and our friendship was forged.

In 2002, Bengt came to Australia, we observed a remarkable sunset eclipse from Cameron Corner and after the eclipse, toured through the South Australian wine regions and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. This set the framework for our eclipse chasing and our long friendship. One of the keys to our friendship was a synergy in outlook. Neither of us were the types to fly across the world, watch an eclipse, then fly home. Every trip had some interesting travel tacked on before or after the event.

Over the next two decades, we formed a very successful eclipse chasing partnership and even firmer friendship. We chased total solar eclipses in 2001, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 being clouded out just once in 2009 in Shanghai. We also observed an amazing sunrise annular eclipse in May 2013. When eclipses were not on we did some other travels. Bengt loved Australia and so in 2007, we explored far north Queensland then took my Hilux to beautiful Fraser Island.

I think for both of us, a few experiences really stand out, the first eclipse we chased together in Zambia with hundreds of villagers chanting singing and dancing around us for its rich cultural experience. For sheer natural beauty and isolation, the eclipses on Tatakoto Atoll in 2010 and Svalbard in 2015. We also spent a week exploring the amazing Yellowstone National Park, not so isolated, with thousands of other people in August 2017.

Upon receiving his grim diagnosis late in 2017, we had some very frank discussions. I asked him if I could come and visit him or if he wanted me to come through Sweden and collect him and we could go somewhere else to escape the Swedish winter. I asked him to think about the place he most wanted to go since this would probably be his last opportunity before becoming too ill to travel. He didn't hesitate to select the iconic national parks of central and northern Australia, Kakadu, Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the MacDonald Ranges. I remember he described them as his last dark place on Earth meaning the one place he had not seen but wanted to explore. He had previously attempted to work a visit to these parks into each of his prior trips to Australia but something always got in the way. In recent years, we had often talked of visiting them together as an extended road trip before and after the 2028 total eclipse when we would both be retired and have time on our hands.

Early in 2018, he came to Australia and we went to Uluru, Kata Tjuta, MacDonald Ranges and Kakadu. It was clear that we only had a short window in which to do this before he would be unable to travel at all. I had visited these parks on several occasions in the past and so using that local knowledge, I was able to plan the trip in such a way that it wasn't too difficult for him to manage.

After two weeks in Central Australia, Bengt stayed at my place for a few more weeks to hide out from the Swedish winter. During this time, we enjoyed lots of great food, and quite a few bottles of fine Coonawarra red wines that we purchased on one of our trips through the South Australian wine districts after the 2002 TSE and that had been aging in my cellar for the past sixteen years. I took Bengt out to my dark sky site at Bango in NSW and we spent a very pleasant evening taking in the wonders of the southern hemisphere skies through my 18" telescope. We also successfully observed the January 31 total lunar eclipse, an occasion of mixed emotions because we both knew it was to be the last eclipse we would observe together.

Eclipse chasing with Bengt always involved incredible cooperation and collaboration both in expedition preparation and during our travels and especially always involved lots of laughs, kidding and joking around, a side of his personality that he didn't always display openly to everyone.

I will probably continue chasing eclipses but I know they just won't be as much fun without my friend. The Moon will still cover the Sun, the sky will darken at totality but the Sun just won't shine as brightly before and after the eclipse.

I'm going to miss you my friend!