This is what my Front Row Seat on the Universe looked like in Arizona in May 2012!

The region around Grand Canyon National Park is an ideal eclipse location on the Earth.  Sunny and dry.

10 minute documentary film from this eclipse

 

The mystique of the American southwest has always called to me.  This is my first experience in the Grand Canyon, and it did not disappoint!

I decided only a week before to chase this eclipse!  Was saving my dimes for the Total Eclipse in Australia later in the year.  And even though I do nothing but globe-trot to exotic locales – it does get expensive! But I made it happen.  And I was so richly rewarded for doing so.  The documentary film that come out of this expedition is worth every penny it cost me.

Kate Russo boldly goes where no chaser has gone before.

There have been lots of books about eclipses – a few books about eclipse chasers – but “Total Addiction: The Life of an Eclipse Chaser” is the first one to go past the celestial phenomenon to focus on the deeper psychological phenomenon being experienced by a relatively small group of people who have made ‘totality’ a part of their lives.

Russo, a clinical psychologist in Belfast, Ireland, has been chasing eclipses since 1999 and has always been curious with the awesome power totality seems to have to change people.  In this book, she presents an analysis of the survey responses and first-person interviews she conducted with a selection of eclipse chasers as part of a phenomenological research project.  In gathering the data, she asks chasers to reflect upon themselves: to ponder why they chase – what things mean – and most importantly, what they are experiencing during totality.   The answers to these questions are frequently surprizing, but it is the psychological analysis, insight and conclusions drawn by Russo that make this book unique.  Many of us who have been chasing eclipses for over two decades – whether we have devoted time to deep reflection or not – are perhaps too close to the experience to understand it objectively.  It is, after all, one of the most powerful subjective experiences ever.  But Russo helps us to lift the veil on our patterns, our traits, our tendencies – to put our compulsions in a wider context – to partially depersonalize an experience that has become part of our DNA.  Through the process of stepping back and ‘seeing the forest,’ eclipse chasers are here understood as a group with a clarity never explored before.

A must to compliment the bookshelves of lifetime chasers and curious first-timers alike.  Available at your favourite bookstore or on Amazon.

Mid-totality on November 14, 2012 – from Lakeland, Australia

Totality begins with a glorious Diamond Ring.

HERE is the link to the New RAW VIDEO from this eclipse.  Full Trip Report and new documentary film in the works …

After 21 years of eclipse chasing – this is one of the most intense and exciting images I have ever captured of an eclipse.

Find out how it happened.  Watch the video now.

How cool is this? Gorgeous image. But can you spot the error in celestial mechanics?

The sun would have to be on the horizon to color the clouds like that! But there it is – hiding behind the Moon above that building!

A mere technicality. This image from the tv show “Being Human” is one of a number of awesome eclipse creations used by the producers for their episode “Partial Eclipse of the Heart.”

I’ve put the relevant eclipse scenes together here for anyone interested in checking it out!

Following in the classic mythos of eclipses, as used in the 1986 film “Ladyhawke,” the few brief moments of totality creates an ethereal pocket in space and time where dearly departed lovers are given a final chance to reconnect, face to face, before facing eternity apart.

As far as treatments go, there is nothing much new here.  But the nod to the classical treatment has a lot of credibility in my opinion, and the computer-generated visuals of the celestial phenomena are first rate – especially when you take into account how poorly eclipses are usually depicted in film.  Kudos to the producers.

Don’t miss the Eclipse Film Database on this website.  The world’s only comprehensive database of eclipses in documentary and dramatic films.

Being Human © All rights reserved by the producers.  Clips courtesy of BH2 Productions (Muse Entertainment) Inc., Kodiak Media, USA.

Totality in Libya 2006 – thanks to the keen eye of Canadian astro-photographer Alan Dyer.

It’s hard to say what makes the best eclipse photographs. The events are so incredibly dynamic, emotional and high contrast in nature that any favourite images are completely subjective. But in a sense, that’s why it’s so cool. The experience simply can’t be captured and put away for later. But one thing is certain: some images come closer than others in doing just that. And this is one of them. As a veteran of 18 solar eclipses – and a consumer of tens of thousands of eclipse images – I can say that the truth and the excitement contained in this shot by Alan Dyer is rare. And it’s one of my all-time faves.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed we all get photo opportunities like this in November.

Here are my plans for the next total eclipse of the sun.

Any fan of the sky wants to appear in the pages of Sky & Telescope!

The article in the July 2012 issue of Sky & Telescope features extreme eclipse chasers and the lengths to which they will go to stand in the shadow of the Moon.  Dean Regas interviewed me about my extreme chase to South America in 2010 – an expedition that could have gone all wrong.

Download the entire article here.

Here is the link to the S&T website – where they feature a few of my eclipse chasing videos, too.

I am almost famous now for sure!