Mike
Begbie, A.S.S.A. (Harare Centre)
My
preparations for Zimbabwe's second Total Solar Eclipse began about two weeks
before the event. Since the 2001
eclipse, the nation has suffered extreme hardship, and many people have
left. Those remaining have been in a
state of extreme depression as to the future of this once beautiful land, and I
suddenly felt that the eclipse was an opportunity to send some message of hope
to our citizens.
I
therefore wrote to Alan Hale, co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, whom I met at
the 2001 eclipse, and requested that he write a short message of hope to the
citizens of Zimbabwe along the lines of his excellent "Challenge to
Humanity" article that he produced for the first anniversary of the
September 11th 2001 terror attacks in the United States of America. Alan
complied with this request, and I subsequently sent it to as many people in the
country as I could think of, as well as certain web pages and to SW Radio
Africa, who were so impressed that they actually interviewed Alan about his
"Project Earthrise"*, and he read out his message to Zimbabweans.
Broadcasting
from England, it is estimated that up to two million Zimbabweans receive SW
Radio Africa on short-wave in this country.
I was also interviewed about the eclipse on this station, my
contribution being aired on the Friday evening before the eclipse, with Alan's
appropriately on the eve of the eclipse.
The message is reproduced at the appropriate point in this report.
A
number of the Harare Centre members made plans to travel to Plumtree, which is
near the border with Botswana, but David Pringle-Wood, the new Chairman of the
Harare Centre and I decided that Beitbridge, the border post with South Africa
was a better option, as it offered a longer duration and the best chance of
clear skies. After plotting the centre
line on a 1/50,000 map of the area, we
found two good possibilities: the old and disused road that veered off the
modern road; and the old disused Beitbridge airstrip. We punched the co-ordinates of the centre line at both these
points into our Global Positioning Systems, and together with my wife and one other
friend, left Harare early on the day before the eclipse.
Arriving
at Bubye Village, which was to be our accommodation for the night, we secured
said accommodation and, it still being early afternoon, we proceeded to drive
the further eighty kilometres south to our proposed sites. The old Beitbridge road idea proved to be a
non-starter - so much thick brush began to encroach on the road, that two
kilometres down it, we decided to turn back and test the second possibility,
the disused airstrip. This turned out
to be a much better proposition, still with amounts of scrub-type vegetation,
but interspersed with large, sandy, flat and open areas. We picked an area that would give us a good
north-east view with some low lying hills in the scene that would make for some
attractive panoramic photography, and marked the point.
We
were positioned at latitude 22° 09' 21" South, longitude 30° 02' 54"
East, seven kilometres north-east of Beitbridge town itself, and within a
couple of hundred metres of the centre line!
We
drove back to Bubye Village, arriving about 5:30 p.m. in time to freshen up and
listen to and record Alan Hale's message and interview. We then proceeded to the Lion and Elephant
Motel, where we had a sumptuous cold buffet meal. About sixty people including the remaining twenty or so in our
party were there, and after the meal Dave gave a short lecture concerning the
site that we had prepared that afternoon, and exactly how to get there, while I
presented a brief talk on the phenomena to expect in the run-up to and during
totality. We both placed strong
emphasis on safety precautions, the correct use of eclipse glasses and
re-iterated the importance of arriving at the site early.
We
awoke well before sunrise and I resolved that I would gain as much from this
day as possible. Going outside, I saw
that the still-hidden Sun was colouring the horizon to the east, and Venus was
a brilliant light a third of the way up a perfectly clear sky. Turning around, I observed the dark blue
column that was the Earth's shadow streaming off into space. I reflected that very soon I would be
standing in the shadow of another celestial body.
We
were on the road by 5:30 a.m., and as we got closer to our objective, we
experienced some trepidation as we saw the cloud beginning to loom above the
south-east horizon. We arrived at our
site a little before 6:30 a.m., and immediately began to set up our
equipment. Word had spread from our
talk of the previous evening, and by 7 a.m. just on one hundred people had
joined us at the site. It was already
quite hot, and there had been not a breath of wind when we arrived, but a faint
stir in the air was now apparent. Using
my 60 mm refractor at 64x, I recorded First Contact at 7:11:58 a.m., while
Dave, observing with the unaided eye saw it at 7:12:01a.m. Within a few minutes, the wind began to pick
up. A light cirrus had by now formed immediately over the Sun, which began to
worry us, but it soon cleared away.
By
7:35 a.m. the "eclipse wind" was much stronger and blowing directly
towards us as we watched the partial phase progressing. It became strong enough to buffet the
microphones on our recording equipment, and each time I took a shot through the
camera, two people stood in front of me and slightly on either side of the lens
as the quite sturdy tripod was vibrating and needed a windbreak! At 7:45 a.m. the sky began to take on that
well known blue-grey cast, and it was noticeably cooler. Now I called everybody together, and when they
had assembled, I read the following message out to them:
"Dear
Citizens of Zimbabwe,
A year
and a half ago my family and I had the privilege of visiting your country, on
the occasion of the total solar eclipse that passed across your nation. During
the two weeks we spent in Zimbabwe we not only were able to see some of your
country's natural beauty, but we were also able to meet and interact with a
number of Zimbabwe's people from all walks of life. My whole family came away
not only with fond memories of our times in Zimbabwe, but also with friends
with whom we remain in regular contact.
We are
well aware that Zimbabwe has been going through some difficult times as of
late. Because of our memories of our visit to your country, and our continuing
correspondences with our friends there, these difficulties you are experiencing
have touched us in a very personal way. It is troubling to see any society
experiencing trials, but when those trials affect people we have visited, and
have shared laughter and tears with, it becomes immeasurably more troubling and
heartbreaking.
During my travels to various places on
this planet I have had the opportunity to interact with people from numerous
societies and cultures. While we may have our superficial differences, I've
discovered that, deep down, all of us, as human beings, seek the same things.
We seek security and well-being for ourselves and our families. We seek peace
with our fellow human beings. We seek to give our children the opportunity to
strive for, and achieve, their highest dreams. And we seek knowledge of our
world and understanding of ourselves and of our role within that world.
It can be difficult, in light of all
the troubles that so many of us over the world face, to be optimistic that we
will ever be able to achieve those hings that all of us seek. But humanity has
faced, and overcome, challenges before, and while those facing us now are
perhaps more powerful than any we have ever faced, so, too, are the tools we
have at our disposal for confronting them. The most powerful tool is our own
mind, and the determination to see that we will succeed.
Mohandas Gandhi once challenged us to
"be the change that you want to see in the world." There is no limit
to our ability to overcome our challenges, and to the heights that we can
achieve - if we will believe that we can do these.
During this coming week, nature will
smile upon Zimbabwe once again, as a second total solar eclipse in as many
years crosses your country. I will not be able to be with you in person this
time, but I will still be with you in spirit. As we watch the light of the sun
disappear, let us remember that, in a few minutes' time, it will return; so
also let us remind ourselves that, however dark our present circumstances may
be, a new light will reappear, if we remain strong and persevere.
Sincerely,
Alan Hale
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA"
This was greeted with a wonderful
ovation, and everybody then dispersed to prepare for totality. We showed people how to produce crescents by
"latticing" their fingers (those with wicker-work hats had a distinct
advantage!), and several photographed the projected image through the
telescope. Excitement began to mount
and high in the south-west a passenger jet described lazy circular contrails,
brilliant white against the darkening sky, as it waited to fly into the Moon's
shadow, adding another dimension to the already surrealistic panorama. Fully twenty minutes before Second Contact,
Venus became easily visible to the unaided eye, and grew brighter and brighter
by the minute.
It was interesting to note that it
remained relatively bright on the ground almost up to Second Contact, and in
the final five minutes, things started happening very quickly. The wind died down rapidly and then ceased
completely, leaving an eerie silence broken only by the hushed and awed
murmurings of people and a flock of swallows calling and sweeping in small
agitated circles over our heads.
Two
minutes before Second Contact, shadow bands became apparent, and increased in
contrast rapidly. This was my first
experience of this phenomenon, as I did not witness it at the 2001
eclipse. They appeared very much like
ghostly snakes writhing across the ground, maybe one and a half metres apart
and moving at approximately four to five metres per second. Now the light dimmed very rapidly and the
solar crescent broke up into at least six naked eye Bailey's Beads. As the Diamond Ring disappeared and the
shadow engulfed us, a privately owned helicopter with navigation lights blazing
roared low over us, flying into the shadow, drowning out the excited
exclamations of those of us on the ground to some extent, but adding to the
sense of drama! The Corona burst into
view, shaped like a four-leaf clover and with much mottled detail. "Brushes" could be seen at the
solar poles, and Dave afterwards described the colour of the corona as
"having a green-white cast with a faint, light brown component to
it". The last thirty seconds of
totality were very dynamic, with new bright crimson prominences bursting into
view behind the western limb of the Moon one after another in rapid
succession. Then came the second
Diamond Ring and another burst of Bailey's Beads. As totality ended, strong shadow bands once again became apparent,
lasting at least two minutes before they faded away. The "eclipse
wind" returned, but not as strongly as before.
It was
the first total eclipse for many people in the group, who thanked us for
guiding them through it. One woman who
approached me was still weeping fifteen minutes later! We decided to wait for Fourth Contact, and
were virtually alone again when Dave recorded it at 9:34:15 a.m. and I managed
to "eke it out" through the telescope to 9:34:56 a.m. As we packed up, the temperature was already
back above thirty degrees Celsius.
We
returned to the Lion and Elephant Motel and had a celebratory Full English
Breakfast before departing for Harare, arriving back in the late afternoon,
weary but immensely satisfied with our experience.
M. J.
R.Begbie
songbird@mweb.co.zw
Hilton
Observatory
Harare,
Zimbabwe
17°
46' 19" S
31°
00' 06" E
Astronomy
Educator
I.C.Q.
Obs. Code BEG01
Mike teaches astronomy to small
groups – for more information, contact him at his email address: mailto:songbird@mweb.co.zw
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