During early in January, 2019 Barry Miller (now living in Chile with his wife and daughter) called and I followed up -- he wanted to know if I was going to come down for the total solar eclipse in July of 2019. I was considering it, but then discovered by just noticing a cruise ad in a travel mag at the gym that there would indeed be yet another total solar eclipse in 2020 in Chile, this time during the much better late spring, early summer month of December. So I e-mailed, called others (including Jerry, his twin brother from Cleveland) and have committed!

Toward that end, I decided to upgrade my traveling astro equipment for the trip. I have purchased two(!) iOptron mounts and tripods and have done some modifications to make both of them actual (if small) GEMs. I decided to do this after realizing that the C5's (otherwise an excellent scope, as realized when we observed the 2017 eclipse in Nebraska) mount, being driven by dual old-school AC motors, would not work and really could not be modified for the southern hemisphere. Hence the need for newer DC, reversible motors' mounts, as the iOptron units -- review of newer unit here -- are. I have since mounted this scope on a driven Explore Scientific GEM.

The plan will include observing the eclipse at Barry's mountain cabin in the shadow of Volcon Villiarrica (the cabin is virtually ON the center line!), and then travel around south nearer to the penguins, parks, whitewater, etc. and north to the darkest skies on Earth, at the Atacama desert. There may be a lot of driving, and even in-country air travel. It’s still early for planning, but I have the books. Should be great!

As it turned out, we had to cancel our plans for the 2020 Chile eclipse, as the world was in the throes of Covid-19 and traveling to and throughout Chile was difficult if not impossible. That tuned out to be OK, as the eclipse was rained out at the area where we were hoping to experience it.

Please click this text or the image to the left to access Willis' newest book -- Ghosts of Christmas Past -- a book of photographs and essays. The book chronicles more than thee decades of curiosity, discovery and celebration -- archived through the family's annual Christmas card featuring Willis' evocative images of natural wonders. Included are photographs of magnificent unique and endangered wildlife, spectacular scenics and (most appropriate here!) astronomical phenomena. Most years the holiday cards also featured essays describing these wonders literally. Click and review the book -- I hope you enjoy it!