What's next?

That's always the first question everyone asks whenever an eclipse is over - "When's the next one?" Well, there'll always be more eclipses. Actually, to be accurate, let's say that for at least the next 700 million years or so, there will be; that's when astronomers say that the moon, in its gradual retreat from the earth due to tidal friction, the gradual slowing of the Earth's rotation, and something physicists call "Conservation of Momentum", will be too far away from us to produce anything more than an annular eclipse. I don't plan to be around then, and I doubt that any copies of this web site will be, either, so let's just say that they'll be with us forever, and be done with it.

Here in the US, we saw a partial eclipse on Christmas Day, 2000, but I'm sure you realize by now that seeing a partial eclipse compared to a total is like putting a cheap comic book up next to Shakespeare! Now that I'm married, and have gotten a few of these "eclipse things" in, my wife (and my creditors!) imposed a pretty strong restriction on me that, if I wanted to keep her (them?) around, I had to do without Africa or Australia in 2002. (And I had to forget about some of the very cool stuff that went on for Antarctica 2003!) That was just as well, not only because it was a little on the expensive side, but also because those lucky Africans got another one in 2006! I went to Egypt to see that one, and then I had my flight to the polar north in 2008, China in 2009, and Tatakoto atoll (2010) to look forward to. Those three in a row weren't easy to pull off, but even with the China rainout, they were more than satisfying.

2012 is tough, being almost entirely over the South Pacific - so I'll likely be in NE Australia.  2013 is a very short eclipse, traveling over central Africa - maybe I'll finally do this one from a cruise ship?  And 2015 is another candidate for an eclipse flight, being over the Norwegian and Barents Seas. (Though Spitsbergen looks pretty cool. Literally!)  My youngest daughter gets to have an eclipse on her 21st birthday, in 2019! If she wants, I'll be more than happy to take her on a South Pacific cruise to see it. Then, the eclipses I will have waited my whole life for:  21 August 2017 and 8 April 2024, both of which are visible from the Continental US! (And are sure to be exciting events, even though they both happen to fall on a Monday!)  In fact, in 2024, I won't even have to leave my front yard to see totality!! (It is in my will that, if I don't make it to the ripe old age of 60 for that one, to have the urn containing my ashes opened and set outside so I can "see" that final eclipse on my home soil. What things do you talk to your wife about?)

I've started sites for each of these two major U.S. eclipses, to try and spread the word on making sure as many people as possible get out and see them! Visit those sites  at www.eclipse2017.org and www.eclipse2024.org!

There are a few more eclipses scattered in there, but those two will be the big ones for me. I will recruit everyone I know to come and watch them with me, to share something with them that I've loved my whole life, and to enjoy the look of jealousy on their faces when they realize they won't live long enough to see as many as I have! (2024 could conceivably be my fifteenth!)

If I live long enough, I will once again go to Egypt in 2027 to see an eclipse from the Valley of the Kings or Luxor. (Darn it! The Pyramids don't get an eclipse in my lifetime!) And then, if I can make it to age 69, I will go to Barrow, Alaska in March of 2033. I will stay (once again) in the wonderful King Eider Inn, enjoy an eclipse at noontime (as I did for my first one, almost 42 years earlier), and then jump in for a swim in the frigid Arctic Ocean and die happy, finally having been eclipsed myself by a hypothermically-induced heart attack!

Well, just kidding about the heart attack, but wouldn't that be a great way to go? Aw, heck, I couldn't do it anyway - Africa gets yet another eclipse in 2034, and you never know....