Solar eclipse chasers are a lot like storm chasers.
The difference is that while storm chasers are hoping for the worst weather, eclipse chasers are seeking the clearest, best weather they can possibly find.
So says Mike Zeiler, a technical writer for the Redlands tech company Esri. He has been following the sun since he first saw the sun’s corona during the total solar eclipse of July 11, 1991. He witnessed it in Baja California.
“I was smitten from the first sight. I knew I had to see it again. No matter how well someone describes the experience of a total solar eclipse, you can never be truly prepared for the sight. It’s unearthly.”
Zeiler was speaking in a phone interview from Casper, Wyo., his target destination for the Great American Solar Eclipse on Monday.
Zeiler, who is based in Santa Fe, loaded up his SUV and made the 10-hour drive Tuesday, nearly a week in advance. But he has been preparing for this cosmic event for much longer.
He and his wife Polly White created a created a website, GreatAmericanEclipse.com, back in 2014 to help people prepare for Monday’s event.
Esri has its own resources, including a story map created by Zeiler that illustrates what eclipses are, shows the path of total eclipse through the continental United States, and the levels of partial eclipse outside of the path.
The Great American Eclipse is in Esri’s wheelhouse. It is world leader in geographic information system, GIS. It combines online maps and data to help people understand complex issues.
Esri specializes in the kind of data Zeiler used to plan for this eclipse: weather and road conditions.
“The destination we select is based on meteorology odds. We try and go to places where the odds are good to begin with, and then we also look very carefully at the roads around that destination so if we need to relocate the day before or the morning of, we’re prepared.”
Casper has a good history for weather, but at the time of the interview Zeiler said the forecast was “not so great.” Plan B is the Snake River Valley in Idaho. Zeiler said he would probably have to commit to a location on Sunday, Aug. 20.
To experience the corona, people need to be within the zone of total eclipse, according to Zeiler.
“Oftentimes people look at my maps and say I’m at the 98 or 99 percent level of partial eclipse. I’m going to have a great view, right? Wrong. There’s a qualitative difference, and a huge qualitative difference between being inside and outside the path of totality.”
Words can’t convey the emotions of looking at a corona, Zeiler said. But he described what people will see.
“You will see a number of features, and those features are called streamers, loops, polar fans, and if you’re very lucky you might see a feature called prominences. Prominences look like licks of flame extending just past the disc of the moon. At each total eclipse the corona has a different appearance.”
The experience is both exhilarating and bittersweet, he said. But when it’s over, there will be other eclipses to plan for. A total eclipse on April 8, 2024 will pass through central Mexico to Canada with Dallas and Cleveland in its path, according to Zeiler’s website.
“There’s several thousand of us around the world, and we will fly anywhere in the world to any eclipse that we can reasonably get to. If it’s a commercial flight plus a drive, we’re there,” Zeiler said.
“What’s exciting about this particular eclipse is that it’s literally in our backyard.”
Online resources
Great American Solar Eclipse: Resources include an updating weather map. www.greatamericaneclipse.com
Esri story map: storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/great-american-eclipse/index.html