Click here to watch more Space.com videos.
There was a total solar eclipse in December of 2021, but few people could see it. Joe Rao tried to see the eclipse from a cruise ship. Here is what Joe and his ship saw.
The French cruise line, Ponant, owned the exploration cruise ship, which had 200 passengers on it, suffered a complete cloud out of the solar eclipse.
The course of the ship was reversed late Friday evening by the Master of the Le Commandant Charcot. The ship was heading on a southeast trajectory just to the east of the center line of the eclipse track, but based on a check of satellite imagery, the captain decided to head on a northwest trajectory and get close to the eclipse center line. The search was on for some thin spots which might have provided some partial visibility after the satellite images showed a more-or-less general cloud cover.
There are amazing views of the total solar eclipse in 2021.
The first image of 1
A view from the stern of Le Commandant Charcot looking up toward the ship's bridge under overcast skies before the start of the solar eclipse in 2021. The image was taken by Joe Rao.
The overcast became thicker as the temperatures cooled. The passengers and crew gathered at the stern of the ship after 3 a.m. The skies were gray.
The 30,000-ton exploration vessel was located to the northeast of the South Orkney Islands, at the time it encountered the moon's dark umbral shadow. The passengers began to notice a diminution of the light levels about 20 minutes before the start of the total phase of the eclipse and it really began to intensify in the final few minutes before totality as the moon's shadow raced toward us from the northeast.
The solar eclipses of history.
The total solar eclipse will be visible from the deck of the Le Charcot in the sea near the coast of Antarctica. Light can be seen on the ship's bridge as the sky is clouded out. The image was taken by Joe Rao.
A number of petrels were flying and swooping around the ship as the darkness was coming on and we also caught sight of two whales. It's not clear whether they were all reacting to the sky being dark.
Totality lasted 97 seconds. There was no shadow or cone of darkness. Someone turning down a rheostat or dimmer switch is just an example of a darkening of the sky. The end of totality seemed to be more pronounced as the light came back quicker than it faded.
It started to snow lightly a few minutes after third contact, and it began to drizzle very lightly during totality. The air temperature was around 0C (32F), but it felt like it was colder because of the winds.
The stages of the total solar eclipse were explained.
The Master of the Le Charcot, Captain Etienne Garcia, made last-minute course changes in order to find a break in the clouds for a view of the total eclipse. The image was taken by Joe Rao.
Unfortunately, we came up empty, but we gave it our best shot. Those who had never experienced a total solar eclipse, were impressed by the dramatic darkening of the sky, but for those like myself, who knew what was hidden from our view behind the cloud deck, it was quite disappointing.
I knew when I accepted the assignment that the weather was going to be hard for success because of the long-term climate records for this part of the world. It is hard to take, considering how bright our skies were two days prior to the eclipse.
This was the 13th eclipse for me, the first dating back to July 1972 and my second cloud-out in October 1977. I have little to complain about, as my batting average is 84.7%, but it is still a bitter defeat.
I have spent over 30 minutesbasking in the shadow of the moon with today's 97 seconds.
I was at a gathering of eclipse chasers in 1973, and one of them was Dr. Charles Hugh Smiley of Brown University. Mark Chartrand said that Dr. Smiley had spent more than 30 minutes in the Moon's umbra. I thought that I would never be close to Dr. Smiley's record, but I have now.
Dr. Smiley observed 14 eclipses in his career. Many veteran eclipse chasers have seen more than 20 total eclipses and a few individuals, such as solar physicist, Dr. Jay Pasachoff of Williams College in Massachusetts, have seen more than 30 total eclipses.
On the day before the eclipse, the skies were brilliantly sunny. The image was taken by Joe Rao.
A cruise ship had a view of the sun. National Geographic's ship "Endurance" was able to see the sun's corona between clouds near the beginning of the totality path. There were also flights that took people over the clouds for a better view of the eclipse.
It is thought that less than 3000 people watched the eclipse.
The Le Boreal, a member of the Ponant cruise ships, passed our ship on its way north to position itself along the totality path. The image was taken by Joe Rao.
The next total eclipse on April 20, 2023, will be an unusual hybrid eclipse, in which an ring or an annular eclipse can be seen along the path of the eclipse. Cape Range National Park in Western Australia is where most eclipse watchers will converge.
A total eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024, in parts of Northern Mexico and the Southern and Eastern United States. 35 million people live in the path of the eclipse and the total phase can last up to 4 minutes.
Space.com's readers would like to see your solar eclipse photo, so send it to spacephotos@space.com with your name and location.
Joe is an instructor and lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy in publications. Follow us on social media.
