-compiled by Bill Kramer

Eclipse chasers wanting the longest duration possible signed on with the Costa Classica cruise ship chartered by Astronomy Vacations (Roy Mayhugh). The primary goal of the cruise was to be where the eclipse would be the longest and see some sights along the way. That meant the eclipse took place high in the sky, almost directly overhead where the entire deck full of eclipse chasers enjoyed over six minutes and forty seconds of totality.

There were several different GPS units in use along the ship. The position at 2nd contact averages to North 25d 15m 48s, East 142d 2m 31s. At 3rd contact the position was North 25d 15m 23s, East 142d 3m 35s. Or as one passenger remarked, three ships converging in the middle of nowhere for an eclipse of the sun.

The following pictures and comments are from those that were on the ship. Click on the images for a closer look.

	During the partial phases, someone projected an image of the eclipsing sun on to the center dome. Click on the image at left to see it. Picture by Michael Zeiler.
	Deep corona composite by Martin Bender shows Earthshine on the lunar surface and plenty of corona detail.
	The corona was elongated in the equatorial directions with well defined polar brushes. Fine filaments that seemed to follow a magnet as seen in this image by Dragan Nikin using a Canon 20D and 300mm lens.
	Eclipse high in the clear blue sky over the smoke stack. There is also a passing jet visible as well as the navigation light; hand held snap shot by Michael Zeiler.
	At an angle of 84 degrees in the sky, the eclipse was virtually overhead. Eclipse watchers under the umbra as the edge of the shadow can be seen in the far distance. Image by Dragan Nikin.
	In the middle of no where, another cruise ship! The Fuji Maru sailed out of Japan to intercept the eclipse at the same place. Picture by Michael Zeiler.
	Another cruise ship in the same place. Just after totality the Asuka II passes by to the cheers of those on deck. Hand held snap shot by Michael Zeiler.
	The eclipse flag flies over the Costa Classica in this snap shot by Donald Abrams. This flag has seen many eclipses in the past.
	Map of the eclipse and ship track showing duration details, eclipse facts, pictures, and near by ships and islands. Map produced by master map maker - Michael Zeiler.(1200x800 ~ 400k) (10800x7200 ~ 6mb)

Picture Pages

• Babak A. Tafreshi (excellent!) APOD!
• Kris Delcourte Flikr slideshow (excellent!)
• Tony Crocker (pictures and text)
• Daniel Lynch (great shots with a Canon 1D mkII and 600mm f/4L IS)
  • Corona image
  • Diamond ring
• Dimitry Rotstein Live Journal
• Costa Cruise - Moon shadow (pdf)
• Mary Dobbs - wide angle
• Dominik Wos
  • Corona Composite (wow!)
  • Eclipse Sequence
  • C2 Diamond Ring Sequence
• Adrian Hylinka
• Peggy Kleinfeld

YouTube Links:

• Darkness swallows the ship - Peggy Kleinfeld
• Collection of pictures compiled by Steven Young
• Big file
• Center of ship
• Speed increased 20x
• Nice music and video
• Email me your link!

Eclipse duration calculated at the end of the eclipse path. The 2nd contact time for the starting position of the ship is three seconds faster at 12:25:48 producing a total calculated time of 6 minutes and 42 seconds.

Total duration is 6 minutes and 39.3 seconds.		Alt.
1st contact:	11:02:21 AM	67
2nd contact:	12:25:51 AM	85
Mid eclipse:	12:29:11 AM	85
3rd contact:	12:32:30 AM	85
4th contact:	1:53:26 PM	72

Lunar limb corrections at the beginning and ending of totality were precalculated as 0.2 seconds for C2 and -3.6 seconds for C3. This reduces the calculated duration back to 6 minutes and 39 seconds. Using video taped recordings of the eclipse the average timing has been 6 minutes and 40 seconds.