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Africa, A Solar Safari |
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By J. Kelly Beatty |
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Ancient skywatchers could predict solar eclipses thousands of years ago, yet it's only been since the mid-1800s that astronomers traveled any great distance to see them. I mused on that odd fact as we headed across the equator in darkness on our 15-hour-long flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg — one of the longest commercial flights anywhere. I was definitely going out of my way to see the total solar eclipse of December 4, 2002, and so were another 30 curious souls on a South African adventure organized by TravelQuest International and Sky & Telescope magazine.
Ours was not the only tour group headed to Africa, of course. In Atlanta's airport I ran into members of several other groups. But the
TQI/S&T group had a
secret weapon in Jay Anderson, a world-renowned meteorologist who
specializes in predicting the weather for eclipses. If anyone was
going to get clear skies, it was going to be us. |
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Rendering by Jay Anderson |
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Jay and I, along with our wives, Judy and Cheryl, arrived in South Africa a day early to make sure all the arrangements were in place. Our group's gathering place was the Aloe Ridge Hotel, not far from Pretoria. We'd weathered the flight pretty well, but I was still looking forward to catching up on sleep. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. As luck would have it, the hotel was the site of three-day conference hosted by the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa. Sleepy or not, I figured I'd better show up for that. I seem to recall that some of the presentations looked an awful lot like the inside of my eyelids.
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The South Africans (and not just the astronomers) were really revved up about this event. Even though the Moon's shadow had crossed the African continent just 18 months earlier, this would be the first total solar eclipse visible from South Africa since 1940. Consequently, this strife-torn country was pulling out all the stops to cash in on the wave of totality junkies that would be traveling to "Jo-burg" and Cape Town for the first time.
Aloe
Ridge, it turned out, is not your ordinary tourist venue. For starters, owner
Alex Richter had established a private game preserve for his guests. Our
foursome, along with tour member Mike |
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Photo by David Miller |
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Curtin, took off on a quick
tour around the compound and, in a matter of an
hour, had caught sight of buffaloes, hippos, rhinos, and giraffes.
After dinner, Richter slipped away with us to his home, where we were
greeted by a raucous troop of baboons and his three pet panthers. But the
real eye-opener was that Richter had installed not one, but two large telescopes at Aloe Ridge: a 16-inch Meade, which sat at one end of the hotel, and a one-of-a-kind 25-inch scope that had an entire restaurant built around it! Unfortunately, clouds and rain kept us from getting in any stargazing with these behemoths.
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Copyright 2007 TravelQuest
International. All rights
reserved. 800-830-1998
Revised:
January 06, 2007.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective companies or trademark holders. |
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