Eclipse chaser: ‘It felt like I had been transported outside the solar system’
Eclipse chasing can bring you around the world to meet new people. Eclipse chaser Jay Ryan and author David Baron, both of whom have seen multiple eclipses, are considered eclipse chasing. Baron, a science writer and author from Colorado, has seen eight total eclipses and plans to be in Waco, Texas for the April 8 total solar eclipse. Baron describes his first total eclipse as "life-changing," describing it as "transporting myself outside the solar system." Ryan, a Cleveland native, has also seen two eclipses in his lifetime, one in Tennessee and another in October 2023. Baron plans to attend a concert performance of the musical "American Eclipse" based on Baron's 2017 book on April 7.
Published : 4 weeks ago by dpetkiew, David Petkiewicz, David Petkiewicz | [email protected] in Science
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Recently I had the privilege of meeting with a couple of eclipse-chasing enthusiasts, and the three of us jokingly wondered, “If the eclipse comes to you, is it considered eclipse chasing?”
The men I met with are Jay Ryan, a rookie eclipse chaser like me, and David Baron, a well-traveled eclipse chaser and the author of “American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World.”
Baron, 60, is a science writer and author from Colorado, and has traveled around the world to see eight total eclipses. He was recently in Cleveland, speaking at Case Western Reserve University about the 1878 eclipse that brought some of the greatest American scientists of their time to the Wild West to view the eclipse. The 1878 eclipse is one of the first to include women scientists studying an eclipse for the first time.
According to eclipse-chaser-log.com, Baron has seen a total of 12 eclipses. He has witnessed eight total eclipses, two partial eclipses and two annular eclipses, including the recent one in Texas in October 2023.
“My first total eclipse was in Aruba on Feb. 26, 1998. For me, it was life-changing; it was just a perfect eclipse,” Baron said. “At the moment of totality when I took off my glasses, I felt like I was on another planet. This was a sky that I had never seen before.”
“The bright sun itself was covered by the moon, but I could see the sun’s outer atmosphere — the solar corona — which looked like a shimmering cotton ball that had been stretched out on the sides as if pinched by colossal thumbs,” Baron later said in an email.
“I could also see several planets flanking the sun. It felt like I had been transported outside the solar system, and I was now looking back at creation. I sensed that I could see the planets as they circled the sun,” Baron later added.
Baron’s takeaway from his first eclipse: It made him feel both puny, insignificant and all-powerful at the same time.
Baron plans on being in Waco, Texas, for the April 8 total solar eclipse. In addition to seeing the eclipse, he will also have a chance to see a concert performance of the musical, “American Eclipse,” based on his 2017 book, at the Baylor Theatre on April 7.
“Clearly eclipse chasing is not cheap,” Baron admits, “but I do it as cheaply as possible.” He traveled to the Faroe Islands in 2015 and stayed in a local family’s home, where they kicked their teenage son onto the couch so Baron could stay in his room.
Ryan, whose day job is as a patent agent at Emerson, Thomson & Bennett, an intellectual property law firm in Akron, is a rookie eclipse-chaser like myself. He is avidly interested in astronomy as an amateur astronomer and a former contributing editor to Sky and Telescope magazine.
Ryan, 62 and a Cleveland native, has traveled to two eclipses. The first was the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse, in Tennessee. The next was the October 2023 annular eclipse, when he traveled to Texas to see it and meet with friends and see how they were preparing for the upcoming total eclipse.
Even though Ryan didn’t exactly have the same reaction as Baron to his first total eclipse -- he said his response was, “Wow, cool!” -- he was also slightly disappointed because he expected to have his world rocked. He said he felt nothing could live up to the years of expectations he had built up in his mind. That said, it hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for the upcoming eclipse.
Ryan’s first attempt at seeing an eclipse was a partial eclipse in 1970 at age 8, and he became fully immersed in eclipses during the annular eclipse over Cleveland in 1994, which is when he first heard about the 2024 eclipse coming to Cleveland.
Although he wasn’t able to see much of the 1970 eclipse, he vividly remembers seeing a newscaster that night saying that if you missed the eclipse today, you’ll get another chance in 2017. Although that seemed like a lifetime away, Ryan never forgot that.
“Eclipses have kind of haunted my life since that time,” said Ryan. “Eventually I saw some partial eclipses, I saw some lunar eclipses,” he added.
Eclipseovercleveland.com is Ryan’s baby and where he has been promoting the upcoming eclipse. It answers many questions people may have about the eclipse and gives tips on safely seeing Monday’s celestial event. Ryan has helped promote five eclipses through talks and websites. Ryan was instrumental in bringing Baron to CWRU for the March 20 talk.
Both men feel indebted to author and astronomer Jay Pasachoff, whom both had the pleasure of meeting before Pasachoff died in 2022. He was an author of many astronomy books, as well as many other science books.
As for me, talking to Baron and Ryan has inspired me to start making plans to travel to chase eclipses around the world as part of my lifetime bucket list.
“For me it’s just about appreciating being alive and seeing the world and experiencing this rare and fleeting phenomenon,” Baron said.