If you come across this book soon after I write this, it’s still useful for another couple of years as it covers all solar and lunar eclipses from 1998 to 2017. Each solar eclipse has a map of its path with details of timings, duration of totality and likelihood of cloud in significant places along its route, and an occasionally jokey description to entice umbraphiles: ‘Here we have another eclipse made for fish.’ ‘if you thought the first solar eclipse [this year] was tough to get to, wait until you see where this one is visible from!’. Lunar eclipses, being more commonplace, have less detail though major ones have maps.
This information is prefaced with introductory chapters about eclipses, what to look for during one, and how to travel to and photograph one. The implied reader is American and possibly not well travelled: ‘Make sure that each piece of luggage has both a destination ticket and an identification tag and that both are clearly visible on the outside’. (Despite this, eclipses are given the same amount of attention, regardless of where on the the planet they occur). Throughout there is a mix of serious, detailed technical information and light-hearted presentation.
Sadly, the internet has probably not made it worthwhile to publish a continuation volume for further years.
- John Wiley and Sons, 1997
- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (6 Oct. 1997)
- ISBN-10: 0471127957
- ISBN-13: 978-0471127956