I've been putting the dates and locations of total solar eclipses on my calendar for several years now. There's usually one every year or two. I really want to see one someday...
Last years eclipse would have been awesome*! It swept over Shanghai! Can you imagine being in a city of nearly 20 million people and watching overhead as day becomes night!?! Well, you don't have to imagine it - it happened! There are tons of videos and pictures. *But, it actually sucked because it was cloudy. I'm glad I didn't go, because tickets to Shanghai are prohibitively expensive and I would have been extremely upset to spend all that money to see nothing...
This year's total solar eclipse will really only be viewable from Easter Island. I had pretty much disregarded it until this evening... I have been going through my music collection and I dug up this old psybient album by Shpongle. I randomly decided to check out their website, and I discovered that they're touring in Easter Island during the time of the eclipse! In fact, there's a huge psychedelic music and arts "Honu Eclipse" festival going on because of the eclipse! I'm not an acid-tripping hippie, but I'll be damned if I don't love their stupid music... Sadly, this once-in-a-lifetime event of psychedelic cosmic alignment is even more expensive than Shanghai. The get there, I'd have to fly from Austin to Santiago, Chile, then take a local flight from Santiago to Easter Island. The AUS to SCL ticket would be about $1200, and the SCL to NUI (Easter Island) ticket would be another $700 at least. Tons of people have already booked their trip, so prices are skyrocketing. And finally, a ticket to the festival is apparently $700 - pretty insane price gouging if you ask me. Total cost for this adventure (excluding hotel, food, and lost wages because I'm just a contractor): $3,400 each... QQ
Well, there's always the future... The distant future... There are no total solar eclipses in 2011. The one in 2012 is in the middle of the ocean. The next one after that is in 2015 and it's close to Iceland, but not close enough. The one in 2016 is in Indonesia, and I have been tempting Andrea with the idea of a trip to Bali... However, the point of maximum eclipse is, once again, in the middle of the ocean...
The final total solar eclipse that I'll mention is on August 21, 2017 near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. I suspect that this will be the first total solar eclipse that I'll get to see in my life. Somehow it's a little more exciting when I think of going to some faraway place to see one, but I suppose middle-of-nowhere Kentucky will have to do. Mark your calendars!
...Or maybe Andrea will wanna blow eight grand on a last-minute trip to a distant, mystical island to hang out at a psychedelic music festival while we watch the universe wink at us...