Chapter 12

 

 

T he eclipse he knew would unfold mid-afternoon had not yet arrived, but already Eli felt exhausted. He suspected excitement, as much as exertion, was responsible. Although they had covered the ground near the peak of Mount Rawlins more than once, and stepped out several times how they would set up the telescopes, when it came down to the day, they adjusted, and made new adjustments, in an effort to get the angles just right. While Eli used his sextant to determine their location and the expected location of the sun during the time of the eclipse, Jason worked the math. They felt confident they knew the exact places in the sky where the eclipse would start and end. To say Eli’s insides quivered with anticipation was an understatement.

Once the telescopes were set and both Jason and Eli shared with Rand what they had determined, Rand went about setting up his portable table and camera.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to get a good close-up shot of the solar corona with your camera?” Jason asked the question as he stood next to Rand’s box of tintype blanks.

“Don’t touch those.” Rand lunged toward his equipment in a protective manner. “I’ve worked very hard to keep everything protected from both light and dust. I don’t want to open things up until the eclipse is almost upon us. As for your question…” He stood and pinched the bridge of his nose before he met Jason’s gaze. “I’m not sure how it will turn out. The night sky might show a lot of detail, especially here. Then again, it might not. I will try to take a photograph of the solar corona through your telescope, Jason, since it has the widest eyepiece. I’ll also try to capture the night sky and corona without the telescope. Discovering what I end up with will be an adventure.”

Impatiently, the men took turns pacing or sitting on ground cloths in contrived attitudes of patience. They took turns checking their watches.

“It’s begun.” Jason Sewell’s quiet announcement moved the other two to action. Both men found their pieces of smoked glass and raised their eye protection to the heavens. Silence hung between them as they each watched the hump of the moon cut into the circumference of the sun. They alternated between checking their watches and recording the times in a journal. As the movement of the celestial bodies brought about the rapid darkening of the sun, they viewed the changes both with the naked eye covered by smoked glass and through the telescope, their eyes still protected by the darkened glass.

Eli shook his head as the earth fell into a darkness akin to a night with a thin crescent moon. The change happened so rapidly, it nearly took his breath away. Soon, he stood in darkness so deep, only the stars in the sky provided light. These were the same stars many people perceived disappeared in the daytime, but which the eclipse revealed were there all along, only masked by the bright light coming from the sun.

“It’s safe now to look at the solar corona with the naked eye.”

After Jason’s declaration, Eli lifted his bare eyes to the place in the sky where a deep, black hole surrounded by a halo of light dominated the heavens. “Rand, is your camera set up to try to capture this?” As if he feared a loud voice would break the spell and it all would disappear, he kept his words soft.

“I’m working on trying to get one through the telescope first. If you can help hold this table at an angle…”

“Sure.” Mentally reviewing where he stood in relation to everything they set up, Eli felt his way to where he heard his friend breathing more than he saw him. He grasped the edges of the portable table. Once Rand moved it in place, he held it as still as possible. At the same time, his gaze continued to scan the wonder of the sky during the eclipse.

“Done.” Relief in his tone, Rand sighed, and he lowered the table until all four legs rested on the ground. He moved to the side so Jason could once again peer through the telescope he brought before the moon began to reveal the sun’s rays.

“Rand, if possible, can you try to get a photograph of the corona and some of the stars without the telescope? Perhaps, if you can pick up the top edge of the hills to the west as a frame of reference, that might make a good image.” As he spoke, Eli studied the eclipsed sun with its wispy crown through his own telescope.

“Trying to add artistic value to science, are you?” Rand’s voice, softly laughing with a teasing tone, penetrated the darkness. “I’ll see what I can do.”

The first hint of light began to fill the sky. As quickly as darkness covered the earth, the light returned.

Each of the trio scrambled to view as much as they could and record every detail possible, before the event ran its course. Once the eclipse ended, they shared a moment of silence as they stared at each other.

“January first, 1889, California, here I come.” Jason spoke first to break the spell. “I won’t settle for once in a lifetime. I must see this again.”

“I know what you mean.” Rand nodded as he leaned over his photographic equipment to make sure everything was closed tight and protected against damage. “I can’t think of anything that could have made this a more memorable event.”

Wordlessly, Eli looked to the west. The sun, which had rapidly been plunged into darkness by the cover of the moon, would soon slowly and gracefully sink beyond the barren hills before him. He knew that, for him, it could have been more memorable. He could have experienced a far greater joy and excitement if he had only made one change to the plans the trio of Iowa scientists and close university associates—friends—had worked on together for months. I should have brought Blythe with me.