Path of the solar eclipse…click for animation. (Credit: A.T.
Sinclair/NASA). This year’s big ticket astronomical event occurs
over a sparsely populated but beautiful track of our planet;
we’re talking about July 11th’s total solar eclipse. Of course,
it isn’t often that an eclipse doesn’t occur over the windswept
Arctic or a war-torn banana republic… the Sun and sand of an
island eclipse may just be the perfect combo. If you haven’t
already made plans to catch one of the numerous cruises headed
that way you may have to enjoy it vicariously with the rest of
us via the Internet; this eclipse graces only a smattering of
islands before making a brief landfall in South America across
the Chilean-Argentine border at sunset. The path of solar
totality will not grace our planet again until November 2012 in
another South Pacific eclipse that intersects this month’s path!
Its maximum length of 5 minutes and 20 seconds occurs over open
ocean. Two very interesting sites for viewing include Easter
Island and just off of t