Eclipse chasing
pursuit of eclipses for study and enjoyment
Eclipse chasing is the pursuit of observing solar eclipses when they occur around the Earth. Solar eclipses must occur at least twice and as often as five times a year across the Earth. Total eclipses may occur multiple times every few years.
A person who chases eclipses is known as an umbraphile, meaning shadow lover. Umbraphiles often travel for eclipses and use various tools to help view the Sun including solar viewers also known as eclipse glasses, as well as telescopes. Reasons for witnessing eclipses range from scientific study to emotional experiences.
History
In the 19th century, Mabel Loomis Todd, an American editor and writer, and her husband David Peck Todd, a professor of astronomy at Amherst College, traveled around the world to view solar eclipses.
In 1923, US Navy tried to observe the solar eclipse of September 10 from sixteen planes, including Felixstowe F5L biplane, "to determine the centerline of the eclipse from air." No photo recorded the eclipse. Officer and photographer Albert William Stevens was one of the pilots on this expedition; he is sometimes called "the father of airborne astronomy". There was another attempt to observe a solar eclipse, this time from a dirigible.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eclipse chasing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.