This is the ultimate, easy-to-read guide for "eclipse-chasers".
Eclipse chasers are now numbered in the tens of thousands. Every total solar eclipse sees dozens of cruise ships, each with about a thousand people on board, steaming along the track of the eclipse. Tens of thousands of observers travel to the eclipse track on land, to witness these rare astronomical events.
There are some important eclipses coming up in the years ahead: in 2008 August across Siberia, and then through the Gobi Desert. In 2009, there is a 6 minute 38 second eclipse (very long) in China, south of Japan, and the Pacific Ocean. There will be two more big ones in the south Pacific in 2010 and 2012, then in 2017 there is a solar eclipse that will be visible right across the USA.
The technology available to amateur astronomers is improving fast. Recent additions are low-cost white-light solar binoculars, and the new generation of affordable H-Alpha telescopes. These can of course be used to view prominences without an eclipse taking place, and the book includes something of this too.
This new book will in fact include everything an eclipse chaser needs. It will make it possible to prevent expensive equipment/set-up errors thousands of miles from home, and avoid problems that have to be fixed with only minutes to spare. It advises on the right equipment to buy for observing and for imaging [digital only]. It provides "eclipse virgins" with a good feeling for what a trip abroad to an eclipse is like – including a humorous look at all the things that can go wrong, and in previous expeditions, have.
Travel details are included, essential in these days of high-security and when equipment has to be carried in a standard 20kg suitcase and 5kg cabin bag.
And of course the first part of the book contains a wealth of information about solar eclipses: how and why they happen, the physics of the Sun and solar system, and what can be observed only during a total eclipse.
