Product Description

-- Maps to guide you to exactly the best viewing spot -- Tips for making the most of an eclipse -- Includes free safety glasses for viewing the sun A solar eclipse is an awe-inspiring spectacle if you are in the path of totality. Getting to the right spot at exactly the right time, and knowing how best to view the eclipse, though, can be difficult. This is the handbook that serious and amateur eclipse viewers alike have been waiting for. It provides, in intricate detail, information on where best to see the solar and lunar eclipses that are visible from the earth, for the next 12 years. Easy to follow, high-quality maps are included, especially useful if the best viewing point is quite remote. The author provides comprehensive background information on each eclipse, and hundreds of useful tips for how to make the most of the few minutes of this awe-inspiring phenomena. The book comes bundled with free safety glasses for viewing the sun.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #638243 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-25
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'This inexpensive little book, primarily about total solar eclipses, will appeal to amateur and serious 'eclipse chasers' alike, being attractively presented and easy to follow.' --Jon Harper, Popular Astrology magazine, July-September edition 'All eclipse junkies will find this amazing little book invaluable. It is both practical but poetical, succinct but thorough. For the new recruit or aspiring eclipse observer, it will be a goldmine.' -- Richard Knox, Gnomon: Newsletter of the Association of Astronomy Education, Autumn 2005 'Held's eclipse guide-book successfully combines essential astronomical information for the next decade with practical observing tips and historical anecdotes. The author has taken the trouble to supply essential weather statistics so there is plenty of good advice about where to go to get the best views. I do recommend school science departments to get this book as a reference guide. The only drawback to purchasing it is that you will be in severe danger of getting hooked.' -- School Science Review, Spring 2006 'The solar-eclipse maps are excellent. The section on unusual astronomical events is an interesting inclusion. The weather treated the eclipse watchers well in Madrid [in October 2005]; sadly observers back in the UK were not so lucky. Perhaps they should take a look at Held's book and use it to plant their next eclipse expedition to sunnier climes. All you need are tickets, passport, money, and this book.' -- Steve Bell, The Observatory magazine, April 2006

About the Author
Wolfgang Held was Director of the Kepler Observatory in Dornach, Switzerland. He is the editor of the annual Sternkalendar (Star-calendar) ephemeris, and is the author of Germany's bestselling book on the 1999 eclipse.

Customer Reviews

Worth Buying
This is a very handy guide to forthcoming eclipses in the above time interval. Clear maps are supplied for each event as well as sky charts for the total eclipses. A solar filter is also provided.

The other rare astronomical events included in the book are planetary gatherings in the night-time sky and the 2012 transit of Venus.

Some criticisms I have include the book's use of local time for eclipse events – I always prefer UT/UTC (GMT) and in some cases I think the UT offsets are not correct. For example, on p.55 the time zone for Novosibirsk at the 2008 August 1 total eclipse is quoted as GMT+8. Going to timedanddate.com, they quote the UTC offset between 30th March 2008 and 26th October 2008 as +7:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone.html?n=375

Also, the chapter devoted to the 2013 annular-total (hybrid) eclipse states that the "eclipse peters out in northern Kenya at Lake Turkana where it appears as an annular eclipse at its finish". Well, this particular eclipse is unusual in that after switching from annular to total it stays total for the remainder of the track ending with the most fleeting of totalities at sunset:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2013Nov03H.html

A person going to Lake Turkana for that event should have ~12-seconds of totality which is not the impression someone reading the book would get.

Another quibble is that the two transits of Mercury during the book's time frame (Nov. 2006 and May 2016) are not discussed.

Having said all that, the inclusion of a chapter entitled Special Accounts of Solar Eclipses (William Wordsworth's poem for the 1820 annular eclipse, Adalbert Stifter's account of the 1842 total eclipse and M. Wilhelm Meyer's account of the 1905 total eclipse) makes the book very worthwhile.

I would commend this book to anyone who pursues the Moon's shadow to the furthest corners of the globe and for those contemplating an eclipse expedition. Just make sure you double-check the timings with another source (e.g. the NASA eclipse web site).

A useful guide for upcoming eclipses.
A useful book for upcoming eclipses until 2017. Detailed maps are included for each eclipse showing the line of totality and annularity across the globe, including star charts and weather conditions along the path. This book not only talks about solar and lunar eclipses, it also talks about other rare astronomical events i.e. 2012 transit of venus and rare meetings with the stars and planets. There are many unique eclipses that are coming until 2017 i.e. the longest total eclipse of the 21st century will occur on july 22nd 2009 with 6min 39sec of maximum totality and this won't be surpassed until 2132!, the annular eclipse of january 15th 2010 will pass over the maldives and at maximum this eclipse will last 11min 10sec, such a long annular eclipse will not occur again for over a millennium until 3043!. There will be many unique places where the moon's shadow will plunge right over them i.e. grand canyon 2012(annular), the elemental nature of the remote southern Andes 2010(total), the icy landscape of spitsbergen 2015(total) and many others. As well as a guide to future solar/lunar eclipses and rare astronomical events, this book describes the miracle of a solar eclipse, observation of the eclipse, lunar eclipses 2005-2017, how do solar eclipses occur and the sensory-supersensory nature of an eclipse (what one feels during an eclipse). The book contains three special accounts of solar eclipses from 1820, 1842 and 1905. I really enjoyed adalbert stifter's account of the 1842 total eclipse observed from vienna, an 8-pages account of that eclipse which he puts remarkably well of the awesomeness of a total eclipse. I agree with the first comment on this book that the time coordinates for places within the eclipse path are inaccurate, but nothing too serious. I would recommend nasa's website on eclipses which give a more precise time on the eclipse path. Overall a great and enjoyable book for those wanting to know more about eclipses and the places on the globe that will see a truly awesome spectacle. I would suggest to anyone to try and see a total eclipse because it's not just scientific it is a truly fascinating and awe-inspiring phenomenon that someone must see at least once in their life, life is incomplete if you have not seen one and after seeing one you will stop at nothing to see another.