Excellent view of total solar eclipse is worth the trip

My wife and I recently returned from watching the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21. Having been aware of the event and seeking ideal viewing sites since summer of 2016, we made arrangements and reservations that would have been impossible at a later time.

What does one look for in a viewing site? Of course, that depends on what kind of experience one is expecting. We wanted to be in the band of totality for as long as possible, at a site where clouds are unlikely to obscure the sun, where traffic will not be crazy, where it will not be overcrowded and that is easily accessible.

We chose a spot on the roadside among the fields of western Nebraska.

We flew to Denver, picked up a truck and 21-foot Airstream trailer and drove north, spending the night at a location reserved more than a year ago. The next day we dropped the trailer and took the truck for eclipse day.

If this seems like a lot of time, effort and money for 2-1/2 minutes, then you have never seen a total eclipse.

Of course, nature always bats last, and there was a chance of rain, even in Nebraska in August. Some folks might remember the 1991 total eclipse that was visible from the Big Island and Maui. I should say was visible except for the haze from a massive eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines and the upper-level clouds that moved in and blocked it for many viewers.

We were lucky and were able to see that event from the saddle road on one of Mauna Kea’s cinder cones. Even knowing what caused this celestial event, we gasped for breath when the moon blocked the sun and the eclipse became total.

The experience was no less thrilling this time. The sky was cloudless with perfect viewing conditions.

At totality the sun was so black it was like staring into nothingness, a black hole that went to nowhere like a bullet hole in the sky. We tried to imagine what it must have been like for someone observing such a thing in the distant past before there was an explanation.

A total solar eclipse is not rare, but it is a rare spectacle for human eyes. One occurs every year somewhere on Earth, but water covers 70 percent of our planet and another 25 percent is sparsely inhabited and far from major cities.

The path of totality is only about 60 miles wide as it races along Earth’s surface at four-digit speeds. The time of totality varies depending on the shape of the moon’s shadow. In the July 1991 eclipse that shadowed the Big Island, the totality was more than five minutes because the moon’s elliptical shadow was elongated in the direction of the line of totality. The 2017 eclipse shadow angled differently, so the totality times were less than half of that.

However you parse it, an eclipse is a sight never to be forgotten, even 5,000 miles away for 2-1/2 minutes.

Richard Brill is a professor of science at Honolulu Community College. His column runs on the first and third Fridays of the month. Email questions and comments to brill@hawaii.edu.