Thanks for the report Tom, I too was looking forward to the nighttime
Southern Skies (my first time, BTW). I will shortly be posting
astrophotos at:
http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl98/secl98.html
I had a goal of doing some Southern Sky astrophotography. I had
requested an automatic transmission rental car for the purpose of
driving out to some dark sites (off-road) on the beach. Instead, I
received a manual-transmission car & I had to LEARN how to drive a
stick-shift. My host Andrew (who is an auto mechanic) put out a call
for an automatic, but to no avail. While this was happening, I
prepared for the worst case, & went to the grocery store to "train
myself". It was comical practicing parking & slow reversing (learning
to feather the clutch). Then, Andrew & I made a practice run on the
highway & circuitous streets to Photostudio Tramm (in preparation for
eclipse-day, when I had to get my film developed/scanned/uploaded).
Finally on Tuesday afternoon, I headed out by myself to Playa San
Juan.
I had previously scouted this beach, which had wind-blocking (for
stable tracking & sharp photos). I spent a good 3 hours breaking out
the 150 lbs of gear, loaded in 2 large cases. I was REAL tired, & it
was a drag to assemble my 5" f8 Astrohphysics refractor (attach
objective, attach focuser), assemble my 70mm fluorite (attach
objective), assemble the EM100. Finding those small parts in the dark
was NOT easy!! There were cliffs blocking Polaris, so I had to use a
compass to get close to the NCP. It took me a good 1.5 hours to
finally nail down the drift alignment (further aggravated by the fact
I KEPT making the OPPOSITE azimuth corrections. Sleep deprivation.
Why is the star drift getting worse?!? Boy, was I MAD!!). I pulled
out my Tirion's Atlas, to get accustomed to the Southern Sky (my FIRST
look ever, BTW). It was REAL interesting to see Orion so HIGH up, and
as it began to set, the Milky Way was PARALLEL to the southern
horizon. An amazing sight.
Would you believe I didn't bring binoculars?? (No room, since I
brought 11 cameras & 21 lenses. BTW, my entire load of gear was
valued at $20K.). I finally star hopped _visually_ down to the
pentagonal arrangment of stars, which "pointed" to Eta Carinae. I
found the 2 open clusters IC2602 & NGC3532 visually (as smudges of
light), and saw another smudge to the right -- Eta Carinae. I
confirmed this with the 70mm f8 fluorite (560mm FL) w/24mm Televue
wide-field. I could make out some dark lanes, & noticed the rich star
field. Awesome. I brought 2 Pentax 6x7 medium-format cameras, so I
could do simultaneous exposures with the 5" Astrohphysics (closeup of
Eta Carinae) & P6x7 telephoto lenses (I brought a 45mm/4 105mm/2.5
165mm/2.8 300mm/4). Unfortunately, one of the cameras which I bought
used (which I never used on B), kept closing after 1 minute!?!?
F***K!!! There goes the idea of simultaneous exposures.. I just did
piggyback telephoto shots -- methodically the 45mm, 105mm, 165mm,
300mm. Didn't have time to do the narrow-angle with the 5" AP.
Bummer.
I was really "hitting the WALL", i.e. big-time sleep deprivation. I
just sat & took in the Southern Cross & Eta Carinae naked eye, as it
set. It was now 4am, and "crashed" on the rear seat. I woke up 1.5
hours later, to get some sunrise shots & break everything down (what a
DRAG!!). I had to leave the 5" AP assembled, which I placed in the
leg area below the rear seats (well cushioned with foam). I was
warned _repeatedly_ by my Curacaon hosts, NOT to go alone on the beach
at night (one said "..please don't give me a heart ache.."). You see,
there is occassional illicit activity @night involving boats (guess
what they're dropping off). However, I go solo 4x4 all the time in
Baja, Mexico (which is also considered risky), so I had no worries.
Just at dawn, a native family came up for a day at the beach. The
kids began to play, & the father played a guitar & everyone began to
sing. THAT was nice..
I drove off, to make my appointment with a private land-owner, who
would give me access to an isolated beach (not marked on the map). He
offerred me lodging at night at 1 of his 2 mansions ("I have 1 woman
in each. Good, no?? "), but I had to decline since I
had to stay with my equipment. He offerred me a rifle, saying ".. no
telling what they [bad guys] might do to you..", and a cellphone (to
call for help). I found the _perfect_ spot w/wind protection --
nestled below a cliff w/cactus, white-sand beach, giant rock. See the
panorama at:
http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl98/secl98.html
It was so isolated & unused, I had to spent an hour cutting a path
through the spiny cactus (similar to the Ocotillo bush in Arizona)
down this steep hill. That Swiss ARmy Knife sure is handy. I barely
got my 250 lbs of stuff (2 cases) , by 2pm to setup my _important_
50mm MULTIPLE EXPOSURE shot. I centered the sun @2:13pm (24 hrs
before totality, the next day) -- the intermittent clouds made this
especially difficult. At 3:40 pm (24 hrs before 4th contact), I made
an orientation adjustment so the sun would be in bottom-right corner.
Done. What was interesting was that I used a Bogen clamp on that HUGE
rock, to hold the camera.
I broke out my equipment -- EM100 mount with 2 corona cameras
(1000mm, 1400mm, 800mm) & 1 prominence camera (1650mm). Panorama
platform (video & 20mm lens), Wide-Angle platform #1 (14mm lens, 200mm
lens, 20mm multiple exposure camera), Wide-angle platform #2 (circular
fisheye, Widelux). Amazingly, I barely caught Polaris through the
trees, so that made polar alignment a lot easier. I drift-aligned,
and got it dead on. I made a VERY GOOD move, I decided NOT to do
astrophotography & get some SLEEP. Tomorrow is eclipse-day, & I don't
want to BLOW it by being a sleep-deprived ZOMBIE. Bummer, I really
wanted to shoot Eta Carinae with the 5" AP!!
The nighttime clouds had me worried, and I caught a weather report
from Puerto Rico on the shortwave radio "..chance of thunderstorms
tomorrow..". Uh oh.. I reclined the front seat, & "crashed". At
around 3 am I woke up to CLEAR SKIES, seeing the wonderful Southern
Cross & Eta Carinae (YES, I could make out its nebulosity naked eye
through the windshied, also the open clusters above & below it). For
an astrophoto-zork like me, it was a real change to do "visual".
However, there were still some occassional clouds.
Eclipse morning was looking REAL BAD, almost overcast with one break
in the clouds. Then, more clouds. There was light drizzle twice,
causing me to cover my equipment with trash bags. :-(!!! At one point
to the south, I saw a dark cloud mass DUMPING RAIN. My greatest
nightmare, & it's happening.. I was talking to myself, "I need a
miracle Sky God, please give me one.. I worked so HARD up to this
point" I was dreading the thought of getting wiped out, and getting a
hard time from my eclipse-phile friends Bob & Jeff who didn't go ("I
told you so, about El Nino" & "I'm glad I didn't go to the
eclipse!!"). Incredibly, by 11 am, there was another break in the
clouds. By noon, it was looking GREAT, and 1st contact began
@12:40pm.
The rest as they say, is history. You can see my results at:
http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl98/secl98.html
There is a picture of my telescope, where you can see the clouds off
into the distance @11 am.
I swear, it was the CLEAREST afternoon the 6 days I was there.
Previous days was always fast moving cumulus (the previous day was the
_worst_), and even REAL THIN cumulus coming down from the north. It
even drizzled that evening.
After totality, I had to monitor my 2 _multiple exposure cameras_
closely, to nail those shots. I was WAY behind in packing up (wanted
to do it during partials through 4th contact). It was MURDER getting
each of those 80 lb cases up that _steep_ hill!! I had to pause in
the middle to rest, my heart was pounding madly (the thought of
getting a heart-attack did cross my mind. I'm 39, and not getting
younger). Finally @5:45, I drove off. I couldn't BELIEVE the
front-wheel drive Toyota STarlet made it up this steep incline (real
_deep_ rut, big rocks). I'm an experienced 4x4 off-roader, so I ought
to know. I couldn't find the owner in the 1st mansion, and couldn't
find the 2nd mansion. In the process of driving around these unmarked
roads, I got high-centered on a rock!! Reverse just got me a dust
cloud, so I crossed my fingers & "gunned it" in 1st gear..
SSSCCCRRRAAAAPPPPPPEEEEEE... GGOOUUGGGEEE.. Whew, I'm out, hope
there's no damage. I finally met a biker dude on a Harley (!!) who
just entered the gate, and let me out. Along the way to Willemstad to
the Photostudio, I got lost 3 times at those _infernal_ "rings" (it
was evening by that time, and the turnoffs are labelled with cities
I'm unfamiliar with).
I finally got to the photo studio at 8:30 pm, 3.5 hours past my
appointment. Carlos had called Andrew (my host), expressing concern.
Worked until 1am scanning/processing/uploading, until I "hit the
WALL". I wanted to sleep overnight in the car, & Carlos responded
"Are you crazy? We've had breakins here. You're coming home with
me. ". I woke up Friday at 7am, to get back to uploading images.
Spent all day doing this, until 5pm. IT'S OVER, pressure is off.. I
drove back to Andrew's place, & rested for 3 hours (just went outside
& looked at the stars, trying to empty my mind). I was on the verge
of a nervous breakdown, all the PRESSURE (finding the _perfect site_,
getting images uploaded, worrying about the cloudy weather, sleep
deprivation). Was up until 4am, packing (what a DRAG!!). Got up @7am
to finish up loose-ends at the photostudio. Searched for eclipse
souveneirs, couldn't find much (most sold out). The return trip was
highlighted by the "cattle-run" at Miami International Airport,
picking up my 2 80lb cases, getting cleared by customs, re-checking
it. I BARELY made my connecting flight to LA.
I'm still at it, getting images processed & uploaded. Haven't even
looked at my Hi8 horizon video, still have to do time-lapses, do the
Widelux image.
Like I emailed Fred Espenak yeseterday, it must be Eclipse Fever. I
LOVE it..
BY
http://www.comet-track.com/eclipse/secl98/secl98.html
In article <34FCE602.43BB982E@sprintmail.com>, Tom Polakis
wrote:
> It wasn't until the last night of our Aruba eclipse trip that one of our
> group decided we should try to go observing. We had already missed
> opportunities to observe with Todd Gross and Phil Harrington. It wasn't
> until after 10 p.m. on a partying Friday in Oranjstead that we were
> trying to flag down taxis and explain what we wanted them to do. "Could
> you take us out of town to the national park and just drop us by the
> side of the road? Then come back in two hours?" Yeah, right.
>
> After a few attempts, we came across Grace Angela, Taxi #169. We loaded
> up Bill Waltz's 6-inch scope in the trunk, and headed toward the park.
> She was lost in the maze of unnamed streets just east of Santa Cruz. So
> she parked it at a pull-off that looked uncannily like an Arizona site.
> The tall cacti were not saguaros, but a decent imatation.
>
> The sky was hardly dark, but it was nice to see the "old friends"
> again. Eta Carina was near the meridian, and Centaurus and Crux were
> climbing out of the coastal crud. The two hours flew by with not a
> single car passing by. When the headlights came up the road exactly two
> hours from our drop-off, we know it was Grace, ready to take us back to
> the hotel.
>
> So for the three of us, it was our first experience with being delivered
> by taxi to an observing site.
>
> Tom
>
> =============================
> Tom Polakis
> Tempe, AZ
> Arizona Sky Pages
> http://www.psiaz.com/polakis/index.html
Last Modified by ALG on March 5, 1998.
Eclipse
