Changing plans – lessons from Wile E. Coyote
I’ve been feeling a lot like Wile E. Coyote lately. Clever and creative in his planning to achieve his one goal – to get the bird – his plans would backfire spectacularly in the execution. I’d like to think my plans are a little sounder than Wile E’s plans. Unlike him, however, I’m facing one […]
The Path of Totality Tour – Expressions of Interest
It’s official. I am now taking ‘Expressions of Interest‘ from communities that would like to be included in my Being in the Shadow Path of Totality Tour. The tour is expected to commence in April in South Carolina, and end in July in Oregon – final dates will be confirmed at the end […]
How many visitors will come for the eclipse?
As an expert eclipse planning consultant, the most common question I get asked is this – how many people will come to our region for the eclipse? This is a question that is very difficult to predict with any accuracy. It depends on so many factors – including location along the path, proximity to the […]
Why I help communities prepare for the total solar eclipse
When a total eclipse occurs in your community, residents and visitors alike will remember it for a lifetime. Having been involved in community eclipse planning for several years now, both within my own community in Australia in 2012, and then as the Eclipse Consultant in the Faroe Islands for 2015, I know from personal […]
Total eclipse outreach: managing the hype
Recently, there was much to-do about the supermoon. In a way, it was great, as people started talking about the moon, and many made a point of going outside to view our closest celestial body. Images like the one above – taken with a telephoto lens capturing the moon illusion – are gorgeous and captivating, […]
4 years ago – totality in Far North Queensland
Four years ago today, on the morning of November 14 2012, the total solar eclipse was visible over Far North Queensland. As an eclipse chaser, for the first time in my life, all I had to do to get into the path of totality was to go home. I spent the first 17 years of […]
Totality 9 March 2016 from Wayu Village, Palu, Central Sulawesi
The total solar eclipse – what can I say. WOW!! It was the clearest total eclipse I have seen since Mongolia in 2008. That’s a long time to wait. We saw totality from Wayu Village, high up in the mountains above Palu city, with sweeping views of the whole bay to the north, and down […]
Eclipse chasers and Countdowns
As an eclipse chaser, I plan ahead and know where I will be on specific dates a few years in advance. This means that I am always on ‘eclipse countdown’, using eclipse maps as a scaffold for my future. This may seem rather geeky, but I think it’s rather cool and it also is quite […]
Top 10 madness that is the new year
You cannot open a newspaper, read a magazine or go online lately without seeing a list of ‘top 10’ things to do or places to go this year. What was especially noticeable this year was the presence of ‘seeing a total solar eclipse’ on most of these lists. I can’t recall any other time […]
Researching eclipse weather using Citizen Science
One of the concerns about the up-and-coming total solar eclipse is the weather experienced along the path of totality during the month of March. Existing weather statistics for the Faroe Islands taken from Vagar Airport collected over the past 20 years show that there is a high occurrence of cloud in March, and a high […]