This eclipse required a journey to the other side of the world. The USSR was involved in the "cold war" with the USA and getting clearance to go was difficult. Our tour leaders managed to get most of the paper work and problems ironed out in advance making for a very pleasurable trip into the heartland of Russia.

In fact, we went where very few Americans had ever set foot before - Bratsk Siberia - a six hour flight by jet from Moscow with a refueling stop in Omsk. Eclipse chasing has a way of making such adventures possible because you have to go where the shadow will fall. Politics and distances can be overcome - you just have to worry about the weather.

As scientists and engineers we were kind of treated like royalty while in the USSR. We stayed at the best hotels and ate at the best restaurants. We also enjoyed some of the best entertainment including the ballet and tours of the Kremlin and the Czar's opulant residence. In Lenningrad (St Petersburg as it is called today), we visited an observatory full of research instrumentation and we also saw several museums of science and industry while there. It was a good trip that ended with a week of relaxation and touring in Finland.

The eclipse site, located in the Siberian wilderness, had been carved out by the Soviet Army. The result was a simple, but very effective base camp from which we observed 100 seconds of totality. The weather was not perfect for our purposes as we had partly cloudy sky through out the entire event. By the time totality came, the clouds ate up over half the sky. Overhead, where the sun was, they were thin and we were able to enjoy a beautiful eclipse with many prominences visible all the way around the moon's disk. Some of the thin clouds can be seen mixed with the corona in the longer exposures.

A Questar 3.5" telescope with an SLR camera at prime focus was used to obtain the eclipse images shown on the left.

At the eclipse site we were each given bottles of sparkling wine, compliments of our Soviet hosts, at the end of the eclipse. For some reason it did not appeal to most. Perhaps it was the bad taste, hour of the day, or the fact it was warm. The result was many of these bottles were left behind at the remote site to be discovered sometime in the future.

The eclipse site held a number of different groups from various parts of the globe. It was fun to see the various equipment, meet the people, and share eclipse stories with a wide variety of individuals.

Siberia was very interesting to visit. In July the flowers were out, everything was green, and the sun was up late and rose early. Children were playing outside until almost midnight and then back at it around 3am. There were only a few hours when the sun was below the horizon and even then it was not very dark. We toured a very large hydro electric facility and had an opportunity to loose at chess to the locals (really, they are quite good!).

- report and photographs by Bill Kramer