Jay M. Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College who spent more than 50 years traveling the world to observe solar eclipses and, with 74 of them, probably witnessed more of them than any other human in history, died on Sunday. He passed away at the age of 78.
His wife said that he died of lung cancer.
He said that if you didn't understand it, you hadn't seen a total eclipse. He meant what he said. Hordes of them travel a long way to spend a few minutes in the middle of the day.
He wrote in The New York Times that he was an umbraphile. When the moon moves between the Earth and the sun, we stand in the umbra, the moon's shadow.
He was more than just a fan. It is best to study the corona when the rest of the sun is obscured by the moon.
It is a million degrees hotter in the corona than in the light of the sun. He liked to say that the mystery had been solved, but that there were 17 possible solutions, and that he was testing those theories.
The doctor preferred to be called an "eclipse preceder" rather than a "eclipse chaser." He would spend up to three years before an eclipse preparing equipment, lining up grants, arranging travel and planning for any of the countless contingencies that he and his team would have to watch the moon pass before the sun.
It wasn't enough to know the path of the eclipse The site is the least likely to be obscured by a storm or morning mist, according to Dr. Pasachoff. On one of his last expeditions, he flew 41,000 feet aboveAntarctica, trekking to the deserts of northernKenya.
Williams College doesn't have a graduate program in astronomy, but Dr. Pasachoff built a network of contacts that made him one of the best connected scientists around.
Michael J. Person is the director of the Wallace Astrophysical Observatory at M.I.T. I knew I could call Jay and tell him I needed a telescope and he would know someone who could help.
One eclipse may seem to be the same as any other. Dr. Pasachoff was aware of that. He said that the sun was less stable than a river and that he had never seen the same eclipse twice.
He said in an interview that each one is different. The sun isn't the same. It's eruptions are not the same. The structures are not the same.
Jay Myron was born in Manhattan. After Jay was born, his father, Samuel, left to serve in the Army Medical Corps and was involved in the Battle of the Bulge. His mom was a teacher.
The family moved to the Bronx after Jay's father returned from the war. He was interested in astronomy from a young age, and by the time he was in high school he was building telescopes for the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York.
He attended Harvard University at a young age. He took an astronomy class with Donald H. Menzel. Just a few weeks into the semester, a total eclipse was going to start off the coast of Massachusetts. The chief executive of Polaroid was in Dr. Menzel's class when he borrowed a DC3 plane from Northeast Airlines.
Mr. Pasachoff had never seen a total eclipse. He wanted to major in mathematics but ended up majoring in astronomy. He received his degrees from Harvard in 1963, 1965, and 1969.
He arrived at Williams College in 1972 as the sole member of its astronomy department and the director of its observatory, the oldest of its kind in the US.
Naomi Schwartz was married to him. He is survived by his family, including his daughters and sister.
He was known as a proselytizer, speaking to the news media, writing for general interest science publications and encouraging amateurs to share his passion for the night sky.
His expeditions included undergraduate students, graduate students from other schools and a coterie of friends and family eager to learn from him.
Amy Steele, a postgraduate student in astronomy who studied with Dr. Pasachoff at Williams, said that he had a rare quality of wanting to see all his students get to where they wanted to be.
He wrote several high school and college textbooks as well as an updated edition of the field guide to the stars and planets.
A pair of asteroids are named after Dr. Pasachoff and his wife, Naomi.
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