On July 20, 1963, a total solar eclipse cast its shadow over North America, and crossed over Bridgton, Maine, where I was attending Camp Wildwood. The dangers of looking directly at the sun were well-known, so they gathered us all into the lodge and had a television set up so we could watch the broadcast. I remember how uncanny it was (I was twelve at the time) to see the sky go so dark at mid-day, and through the windows of the lodge we were treated to that strange and unnatural crepuscular light which covers the area of the eclipse’s umbra. Ever since that day, I’ve been intrigued by the phenomenon, which is rare enough, but even rarer for any given geographical area.

In 1999, I had a business trip scheduled to Eastern Europe, and by miraculous happenstance I found myself in Bucharest, Romania – the “sweet spot” of a beautiful eclipse.

Eclipse Commemorative Button

500 Lei commemorative coin, the first such issue since 1906.

It was breathtaking. The sky around the totality was a dark purple, and while not totally cloudless was obscured only by wisps of high clouds which only added to the impressive beauty of the event. Given the upcoming schedule of total eclipses, this is probably the last one I’ll get to see – and I’m so grateful to have been on hand. But my appetite was whetted, and when an annular eclipse passed over Utah in May of 2012, I knew I had to be there.

This was what they call a “ring of fire” eclipse – the sequence below was taken in my shadow box, so the quality is not spectacular, but they give a good idea of the progression of the event. Again – truly breathtaking. We don’t see this happen all too often, and it left me with a heightened sense of awe for the size and complexity of the universe we live in.

… but this is what it looked like through our eclipse glasses. Quite a sight.

Lunar eclipses are more common, but I’ll always take the chance to watch one when it comes around. My little camera is not good at night shots, but I captured this picture of an eclipsing moon over the Oquirrh mountains on a bitter cold morning of December 10, 2011.

If I were richer than God I’d go chasing more of these celestial events, but since I’m not, the memories will have to suffice.

The Old Wolf has spoken.