Jay M. Pasachoff's

Costa Rica Annular Eclipse Trip

December, 2001

Jay, Naomi, and Deborah Pasachoff travelled to the Pacific Coast of the state of Guanacaste in Costa Rica, joining a group from the University of Costa Rica headed by Prof. Jorge Paez and including Rodrigo Carboni and Juan Jose Valverde as well as about 50 others. They were directly on the centerline in the small town of Ostional, a few km north of Nosara. The weather was the worst of the week, with heavy clouds forming after sunrise and remaining for the day.
The clouds parted sufficiently to see first contact at 3:12 pm and the eclipse remained visible for another 10 minutes or so. The partially eclipsed sun was again visible about 20 per cent, 40 per cent, 60 per cent and 80 per cent of the way, for about 2 minutes each time. Then the clouds closed in completely for the duration of the day, through sunset.
The site was about 50 miles south of Playa Flamingo, where Dennis di Cicco took his famous compound annular photo that was published on the cover of Sky and Telescope in 1974 and that has been widely reproduced. That eclipse was in December 1973, when Dennis was working with us at Williams College before he went to work for Sky & Telescope.

Jay Pasachoff
Williams College, currently at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Chair, International Astronomical Union Working Group on Eclipses. Chair, Program Group on Public Education at the Times of Eclipses of the Commission on Education and Development of the I.A.U.