Annularity in the Shadow of Stone Kings

Eclipse Day!  This was the biggest day on the Easter Island trip!

Two people in my group decided to stay at the pool deck at the hotel, because if equipment set up there the day before went perfectly, then why mess with success?

Me and others wanted to be in the shadow of the moai, so we went to Tahai - a well-known sight right on the edge of town. We had set up shop by 9:30 am, long before everyone else showed up (partial eclipse began at 12:23 pm).  

There was an event space overlooking Tahai and they were hosting an astronomy tour group for the eclipse.  The event included a buffet lunch with three different kinds of protein, three drinks, and most importantly, access to a bathroom.  For CLP 48,000 (about USD $50), it was a no-brainer “sold”. 

View from Vai Uri event space

After we got set up, two different park rangers came up to us.  First told us not to cross the line towards the moai (OK, easy enough) and the second thought we were all commercial photographers and wanted to see a permit.  Fortunately, “personal photo” sounds exactly the same in English and Spanish.

Weather was partially cloudy with wispy clouds flying by all day. Not perfect, but this was the best weather day out of the four days I have been here thus far. 

Going into the partial, with this being my fourth solar eclipse, it clicked through pretty much “as normal”.  No big whoop.   

Totality started at 2:04 pm and lasted for six minutes and 12 seconds.  It does not make a difference if totality is two minutes or six minutes, it’s always the same:  sense of time is lost as stress level is increased. 

Take the wide angle photo.  Lower the exposure…lower even more.  Watch the time lapse, is it overexposed?  Yes.  Crap.  

The moon was still moving during totality, so the shape of the sun ring was ever changing.  Got to keep moving on the telephoto, keep holding down the shutter button on the remote trigger.  Oh yeah, still need look at the eclipse with my own eyes.  It’s windy, so hold onto my eclipse glasses so they don’t fly away.

Egress with Bailey's Beads

I wanted to photograph the moai with the eclipse, unfortunately, the sun is still too bright during an annular.  In other words, I still needed a special filter.  I should have looked into that before as the shot I wanted to create did not pan out.  Maybe I will Photoshop in the eclipsed sun later.  

Underexposed so can better see the eclipse.  Still too bright!

After totality, we finally had lunch at around 2:30 pm. We were so famished that we didn’t care all the meats were so dry because they sat around for two hours. 

The partial going out never commands much attention.  

In clouds

Accordingly, the crowd at Tahai thinned out considerably.  

We (as with other astronomy buffs) stayed until the very end at 3:52 pm, all sun burnt but satisfied that we got to experience an astronomical phenomenon in the shadow of mysterious statues at the most remote location in the world!