WAITING FOR THE SHADOW SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSE OBSERVING REPORTS AND OBSERVATIONS - ZAMBIA 2001

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Totality As the lunar disk began its ingress on Sol, we distributed the eclipse glasses we had derived from a variety of sources. Some were purchased, some were given to us by other tourists who heard what we were doing. One german eclipse chaser, Udo Hoffmann generously gave us about 25 or 30 pairs. We only had 50 pairs of glasses to share between 1000 villagers so there were very large groups sharing each pair of glasses. We also had mirror projectors and pinholes operating around the school. The school grounds were full of people as the temperature dropped, the wind that had been blowing before the eclipse stopped abruptly and the light began fading rapidly. The atmosphere was electric as we counted down the last minute to totality. Villagers spilled onto the school oval and the women began ululating as the Moon's shadow engulfed the landscape. Suddenly there was total silence followed by one simultaneous gasp as hundreds of villagers got their first view of the Sun's magnificent coronal streamers radiating out all around the dark lunar disk. Around the horizon, the sky was glowing crimson red. This was capped by hues of yellow and brown from the smoke that melted into a dark sapphire blue overhead. Jupiter and a handful of the brightest stars became visible as I looked around the rainbow coloured dome. It was like a 360 degree sunset. I quickly ran through my photographic sequence. My eye was drawn to the small telescope I'd set up. The corona is an impressive sight to the naked eye. Through a telescope, it is astonishing. The corona has a much more complex structure when viewed through a telescope than can be seen with the naked eye. Prominences, parts of the sun's surface thrown into space by magnetic storms on the sun, encrusted the lunar limb like rubies.   Totality ended with a spectacular diamond ring that seemed to last forever. My friends and I exchanged glances. Everyone had huge grins on their faces. Even those of us who have seen numerous eclipses rated this as one of the best we've ever seen. The villagers were coming up to us in droves some with tears in their eyes thanking us for helping them. Many had thought we were crazy coming halfway round the world to see an eclipse. Some made a point of telling us that now they understood. I reset my camera to automatically photograph the partial sequence, repalced the filter and let it do it's stuff. I realised I was exhausted. I'd been rushing non-stop since 6 am and it was now almost 4pm. I sat down on the ground and relaxed for a while. I spent the next couple of days at ZASTI trying in vain to writie up observations and to prepare the eclipse class I was due to run the following week at Kapini. This was nearly impossible. I was constantly distracted by many fascinating discussions with other eclipse observers. There was discussion of techniques, equipment and plans for collaboration at future eclipses. The atmosphere at ZASTI was like an informal solar eclipse workshop and most of us made full use of the opportunity to talk face to face with each other instead of via email.