On this page are some images of early eclipse activities, a list of the solar eclipses I have viewed, and memories of eclipse-chaser friends who have passed away.
The earliest solar eclipse observation in the state of Texas was likely done
from Fort Worth during the July 1878 total eclipse.
ECLIPSE OBSERVATION IN TEXAS
Edison Schaefer in the 1930's built a small observatory in the town of Schulenburg between Houston and San Antonio, hand-grinding the 10-inch reflector mirror. THe observatory and telescope are preserved in the town.
My earliest eclipse photo was that taken 85 years after the 1878 photo was taken-- in July 1963 from San Antonio, Texas projecting the image of the sun onto a lawn chair using a 3-inch refractor owned by Carol Damm. Her late husband had fought against Pancho Villa some 50 years earlier.
In undergraduate school from Edinburg, Texas most of my observation was done in or near the dome of the 17-inch reflecting telescope located on campus.
Soon after moving to Houston, Texas I set up a 5-inch refractor to project the sun during the September 1969 eclipse for employees of Lockheed Electronics Company.
In March 1970 I found myself in Valdosta, Georgia set up in front of a rooster pen. Not a good decision.
Three years later I drove a Datsun station wagon from Houston to Cap Chat, Quebec with an 'eclipse' license plate. Back then there was a limit of just 6 letters.
Elsewhere in the USA, other amateur astronomers, perhaps unnoticed observed
solar eclipses. One such amateur was Al Webber who in the photo below took
images of the total solar eclipse of August 31, 1932 from Beachwood, Maine. Al
was age 25 at the time and provided these images to me at age 99.
EARLIER AMATEUR ECLIPSE OBSERVATION IN THE USA
Even then, others around Al knew how to get comfortable when visually watching the progress of the partial phases using protective exposed film. Today, the material has changed but the principle of casual observing is still the same.
Here is a photographic recording showing a sequence of images taken of the 1932 eclipse taken with the camera shown in a preceding image. Photo by Al Webber.
The following is list of all the solar eclipses I have attempted. At the
urging of colleagues I am now including partial eclipses which I do not count in
my list of historical expeditions. The 'eclipse type' below is the resultant
eclipse where I attempted observation. For example, if the eclipse was total and
I was not able to get to the zone of totality, I attempted observation as close
as I could get to the location of totality. In that case I would list it as
partial. This was especially difficult in my early years where I was not able to
afford travel. The location is the name of the closest town, named village. The
NASA Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society eclipse team is represented by
the Texas flag. If you see this flag at an eclipse, it is probably RING OF FIRE
EXPEDITIONS.
SOLAR ECLIPSES I HAVE SEEN
| NUMBER | DATE | ECLIPSE TYPE | LOCATION OBSERVED |
| 1 | 9/20/60 | PARTIAL | LOS ANGELES, CA USA |
| 2 | 7/20/63 | PARTIAL | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS USA |
| 3 | 5/9/67 | PARTIAL | EDINBURG, TEXAS USA |
| 4 | 9/11/69 | PARTIAL | HOUSTON, TEXAS USA |
| 5 | 3/7/70 | TOTAL | VALDOSTA, GEORGIA USA |
| 6 | 7/10/72 | TOTAL | CAP CHAT, QUEBEC, CANADA |
| 7 | 12/24/73 | ANNULAR | ACAPULCO, MEXICO |
| 8 | 12/13/74 | PARTIAL | HOUSTON, TEXAS USA |
| 9 | 10/12/77 | TOTAL | LAKE GUATAVITA, COLOMBIA |
| 10 | 2/26/79 | TOTAL | LAKE WINNIPEG, CANADA |
| 11 | 2/16/80 | TOTAL | KENYA |
| 12 | 8/10/80 | PARTIAL | HOUSTON, TEXAS USA |
| 13 | 7/20/82 | PARTIAL | LONDON, ENGLAND |
| 14 | 6/11/83 | TOTAL | BANGIL, JAVA, INDONESIA |
| 15 | 5/30/84 | TOTAL-ANNULAR | ATLANTA, GEORGIA USA |
| 16 | 11/22/84 | TOTAL | KWIKILA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA |
| 17 | 5/19/85 | PARTIAL | ANCHORAGE, AK USA |
| 18 | 10/3/86 | PARTIAL | HOUSTON, TEXAS USA |
| 19 | 3/29/87 | TOTAL-ANNULAR | LIBREVILLE, GABON |
| 20 | 9/23/87 | ANNULAR | TAIYUAN, CHINA |
| 21 | 3/7/89 | PARTIAL | SCOTTSDALE, AZ USA |
| 22 | 7/22/90 | PARTIAL | HONOLULU, HI USA |
| 23 | 1/15/91 | ANNULAR | NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND |
| 24 | 7/11/91 | TOTAL | SANTIAGO IXCUINTLA, MEXICO |
| 25 | 1/4/92 | ANNULAR | OTTA ISLAND, TRUK |
| 26 | 5/21/93 | PARTIAL | PHOENIX, AZ USA |
| 27 | 5/10/94 | ANNULAR | LENEXA, KANSAS USA |
| 28 | 11/3/94 | TOTAL | TACNA, PERU |
| 29 | 4/29/95 | ANNULAR | PUINAHUA, PERU |
| 30 | 10/24/95 | TOTAL | PINAHAT, INDIA |
| 31 | 10/12/96 | PARTIAL | LONDON, ENGLAND |
| 32 | 3/9/97 | TOTAL | DARHAN, MONGOLIA |
| 33 | 2/26/98 | TOTAL | WESTPUNKT, CURACAO |
| 34 | 8/22/98 | ANNULAR | JOHORE BARU, MALAYSIA |
| 35 | 2/16/99 | ANNULAR | PERTH, AUSTRALIA |
| 36 | 8/11/99 | TOTAL | BATMAN, TURKEY |
| 37 | 7/31/00 | PARTIAL | ANCHORAGE, AK USA |
| 38 | 12/25/00 | PARTIAL | HOUSTON, TEXAS USA |
| 39 | 6/21/01 | TOTAL | LUSAKA, ZAMBIA |
| 40 | 12/14/01 | ANNULAR | PUNTARENAS, COSTA RICA |
| 41 | 6/10/02 | ANNULAR | TINIAN, NORTHERN MARIANAS |
| 42 | 12/4/02 | TOTAL | CHIBUTO, MOZAMBIQUE |
| 43 | 5/31/03 | ANNULAR | OLAFSFJORDUR, ICELAND |
| 44 | 11/23/03 | TOTAL | ANTARCTICA |
| 45 | 4/8/05 | ANNULAR | PENONOME, PANAMA |
| 46 | 10/3/05 | ANNULAR | ALGIERS, ALGERIA |
| 47 | 3/29/06 | TOTAL | JALU, LIBYA |
| 48 | 9/22/06 | ANNULAR | KOUROU, FRENCH GUIANA |
| 49 | 8/1/08 | TOTAL | DUNHUANG, CHINA |
| 50 | 1/26/09 | ANNULAR | KEELING ISLANDS |
| 51 | 7/22/09 | TOTAL | WUHAN, CHINA |
| 52 | 1/15/10 | ANNULAR | GULU, UGANDA |
Sometimes you will meet a person for a week or two on our eclipse travels.
Perhaps the details below will give you insight into a few of the remarkable
people who have shared the love of solar eclipses with us.
DENISE NYE (1946-2006)
IN MEMORY OF SOME PAST ECLIPSE-CHASING
FRIENDS
Denise Nye was born May 24, 1946 and passed away very suddenly on March 13, 2006 at age 60. She was born in Paris, France and moved to Montreal Canada at age 5. Her parents had foresight to put her in English-speaking schools but she spoke French at home. She graduated from McGill University with a degree in English Literature. She met her husband, Derald Nye, in February 1972 in Australia and was married in Boulder CO on April 9, 1973. She became a US citizen in 1981. She worked at IBM for 20 years, retiring in May 2001. She and Derald traveled to all the continents and over 90 countries and island groups. They had recently returned from the world's most remote inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha. She had traveled to 28 total and annular solar eclipses and was scheduled to leave on her 29th eclipse trip on March 17, 2006. She and her husband were honored when the International Astronomical Union approved the name of asteroid number 3685, DERDENYE for them.
MARY SCHIFLETT (1925-2007)
EULOGY FROM DAVID WEBER
I met Mary in November of 1994 while traveling with a group to South America to observe a total eclipse of the sun. For those of you that have never experienced a total eclipse, you may wonder why anyone would travel around the world to distant foreign countries for such a brief event. It turns out that Mary had the bigger picture in mind. That is, she savored the adventure of the journey as well as the actual eclipse itself. Mary enjoyed making new friends along the way in addition to exploring our destination countries. She always made it a point to visit museums, paying particular attention to local artwork.
On the day of the eclipse, Mary was the tour member responsible for recording the temperature changes that occur before, during and after totality. She took this responsibility very seriously and was quite meticulous in her attention to detail. As a side-note, during the 1994 eclipse trip, Mary signed up for an extended cruise down the Amazon River. However, during this adventure, all of Mary's luggage was lost and she had to share clothes with another eclipse chaser, Celia Moynihan. Upon returning to Houston, Mary reportedly burned the blouse that she had worn for almost a week.
In 1998, our eclipse group traveled to the island of Curacao in the southern Carribean. This must have been a very, very special eclipse for Mary since she was able to share the experience with members of her family, Raymond and Peggy. In 1999, Mary traveled to the Canary Islands to view a meteor shower. Our group stayed up until almost dawn as we watched the meteor display through openings in a partly cloudy sky.
It was during one of my earliest conversations with Mary that I discovered that we shared a common travel goal, that is, to eventually set foot on each of the seven continents. Well, Mary beat me to it, achieving her goal in January of 2000 when she traveled to Antarctica and walked among the penguins.
In June of 2001, our group traveled to the African countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia for yet another eclipse. Mary visited with the native peoples, observed wildlife, explored museums and listened to local music. In April of 2005, Mary invited a group of her eclipse friends to Houston to be her guest for brunch and to reminisce about our previous travels and adventures.
Mary was an individual with an adventurous spirit and will be truly missed as our group continues to travel, chasing eclipses around the world.
ACCOUNT OF HER LIFE
Mary Schiflett passed away on January 13, 2007 at age 81. She was born September 23, 1925 in El Paso, TX and moved to Dallas where she was outstanding senior girl graduate of Highland Park High School. She attended Southern Methodist Univeristy on a music scholarship but later changed her major to economics and journalism and graduated with honors.
She was a member of 5 honor societes and won 1st prize in the Cokesbury contest for the best essay by a college under graduate. Her love and talent in music was demonstrated by writing an operetta while in high school that led to her college scholarhip. Throughout her life she played the piano both by note and ear and she wrote a number of songs for special occasions and to honor friends. She was given a special award by the American Red Cross for having performed as a singer, pianist, and accordianist for more than 1000 hours at hospitals and military bases across North and Central Texas during World War II and turned down several opportunities to turn professional with her music while still at college.
At SMU she was a journalist for THE SEMI-WEEKLY CAMPUS. Upon graduation she first worked for the US Dept. of Commerce at its regional office as an economics historian. Later she was assistant editor of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce's journal DALLAS.
In 1948 she married Ray Schiflet II and they moved to Houston. She continued her career as a writer, joining the staff of McGraw-Hill's BUSINESS WEEK. When the marriage ended she enrolled at the University of Houston obtaining a masters degree in English Literature and continued as a free-lance editor and writer for economics and business journals. She taught economic planning in the Future Studies Program at UH-Clear Lake and city planning in the College of Architecture on the Main UH campus. At UH and Rice universities she received a number of national grants including one from the Sloan Foundation and two from the National Endowment for the Humanities and these projects resulted in her contributing articles and chapters to books published nationally.
In 1984 she joined the executive staff of the Texas Medical Center as Associate Director for Planning. She held successively senior positions until her temporary retirement in 1998 as Vice President for Public Affairs. After an extended trip to South America, she returned to TMC becoming Vice President/Consultant, a position she held until December 2006. Twelve years before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed Mary recognized the need for handicapped facilities at the Texas Medical Center and initiated guidelines which enabled facilities to be installed at all onsite buildings.
She was listed for many years in WHOS WHO IN AMERICA and other national and international biographical directories. She was the first woman member of the Rotary Club of River Oaks in 1997 and was awarded its Outstanding Member plaque for her service, and and was President in 2003-2004. She was a member of the executive committee for the Friends of Hermann Park; on the volunteer service council of the Institute for International Education's Southern Regional District; and President for two years of the Downtown Club.
EUOLOGY FROM DEBBIE MORAN
I first met Mary on an eclipse trip to Africa. When I lost my suitcase somewhere on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, it was Mary who came to the rescue with a loan of undergarments for the few days remaining. Her generosity went even beyond that when she informed me there was no need to return them. Mary's desire to travel to see eclipses says something about who she was. I think it is because chasing eclipses is more than just a gee-whiz experience. It satisfies on many levels: as a thing of beauty, as an extraordinary natural phenomenon full of rapidly changing effects, as a cultural experience as it brings together people from many different parts of the world, and for many, there is a spiritual aspect. Besides being one of the most beautiful sights one can hope to see, an eclipse, more than anything else I can think of, makes this corner of the solar system seem tailor made for humans. I always marvel at how two completely unrelated objects, the moon, a rock only about the quarter the diameter of earth, and the sun, a star which could swallow a million earths, could be placed in the heavens in such a way that from our point of view here on earth, their apparent size is nearly the same. When every year or two, they happen to coincide in such a way that the moon completely blocks the chromosphere of the sun and the normally invisible corona appears, the effect is miraculous. It is one of those things that makes you grateful to be alive. I remember our tour guide in Africa saying he did not fully understand why we bothered to go to all this effort. After the eclipse, he said, "Now I see." I know Mary also appreciated the way eclipses draw people to explore different cultures. We have found ourselves in parts of the world we may have never thought about visiting otherwise. This serendipity of experience is another great attraction of eclipse travel.
After we returned to Houston, Mary became a lunch companion. She was also a Symphony patron, and as a musician with the Symphony, I appreciated her support. We often spoke of conductors and interpretations as well as symphony politics. I always thought it was extremely cool that she had to steer our lunches around activities such as showing PBS camera crews around the Medical Center. She struck me not only as interesting in her own pursuits, but also as interested in others. For me, Mary was a model to aspire to, with her grace, dignity, and engagement in life. I was right in the middle of getting to know her better, and feel greatly that I have missed a lot.
RICHARD (DICK) MISCHKE (1921-2010)
Colonel Richard M. Mischke (USAF Retired) passed away on March 16, 2010 in Grenada, Spain, doing what he loved - traveling with a photographic tour. Richard was born to Carl A. and Carolyn A. Mischke on May 27, 1921 in Luddington, LA. He was beloved big brother to Betty Jean Saulsbury. He graduated from the University of Texas with a BA in Business Administration, and earned his MBA at the University of Ohio. He served in the Army Air Corps in World War II as a fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater. He also served in the Korean War and two tours in the Viet Nam War. He earned many medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit - Officer. After retiring from the Dept. of Justice and the Pentagon, he built his own retirement home (Cima del Mundo) in San Antonio. He loved to take pictures and would take slide shows of his travels to local groups and delight them with his travelogues. He was a member of the Explorers Club, an astronomy club and two camera clubs in San Antonio, and traveled the world looking for adventure and opportunities to photograph solar eclipses. He continued to fly airplanes and just last month had re-certified to be an airline pilot instructor. The following are recollections from Robert V. Reeves: "He never married, but was rarely without spectacular female company unless he was doing an astronomy activity.
In San Antonio, he was very involved in the restoration project years ago where the Majestic Theater was renewed and is now a Broadway show center. Dick was so impressed with the Majestic, especially the starry ceiling in the auditorium, that he did the two-story high ceiling of his living room in the same style with lights forming constellations. And that house of his, what a palace! He deliberately chose the location on a bluff overlooking San Antonio. The whole city was spread out in front of his rear patio. He would brag about how his house was the same elevation as the top of the Tower of the Americas. San Antonio rises 600 feet from downtown to north Loop 410, but never challenged him on that topography. Another bragging point about his house was how he equated the foothills that end in north San Antonio as geologically being the termination of the formation we call the Rocky Mountains and how his house was litterally on the edge of that. There was a pretty big cliff over the wall of his back yard. But again, I think these geography claims are more like embellished pilot's stories.
As for Dick's flying, he served as a World War II P-38 Lightning pilot. In the South Pacific, he was part of the crew that went after Admiral Yamamoto and shot him down. Dick was in the wrong part of the Pacific in that operation and was not personally involved in the shoot-down, but he was part of the group effort. He also related the story of how he went through the war without a scratch, but was bitten by a tropical caterpillar that paralized him for a time. Made him stiff as a board. He said his C.O. wasn't worried about whether he would die, but how soon he could fly again. Dick also related how the closest he came to harm was when he was flying straight and level somewhere and on a whim decided to alter course for a while. As soon as he banked away, an antiaircraft shell burst exactly where he would have been if he had not banked. The Japanese had him sighted and he didn't know it. Dick was one of the ones who survived the post-war RIF and went on to jets. He also was a partner in a small airline that flew between Saipan and Guam. As an F-84 pilot he did excercises where he would carry an old IFI style nuclear weapon and have to navigate practice strikes using old fashioned sextant style instruments while flying a clunky old F-84. He ended up in F-4 Phantoms in Vietnam. That's quite a span of aviation.
Another quick tale about Dick, back when I built my observatory in the mid-1980's, then moved it out to Comfort, Dick not only was the only one who helped me paint it upon completion, he volunteered unasked to do it with me. I was impressed because I regarded him as an "old man". Of course, he was then what my age is now, so I can see why he was chugging around like he did. Anyway, Dick showed up in that huge Cadilac he drove back then and he was dressed in his usual casual khaki pants and shirt, except this pair was obviously his painting clothes. I don't think there was a square inch of those clothes that didn't have paint on them. If he took them off, I am sure they were so stiff from paint they would stand alone like a scarecrow. I don't know if you ever saw his house, all three stories of it with the exterior spiral staircase up to the 3rd floor observation area overlooking all of San Antonio, but he painted that place himself. It was huge! The guy was a go-getter even in "old age". Another point about him was his love of photography other than astrophotography. He had been a photographer all his life and was an absolute master with black and white portraiture. He showed Mary and I his gallery of mounted prints once and they were spectacular. They were so good Mary was even impressed with his nudes. He was actually almost a photographic scientist. I don't think he ever threw away an image, even if it was bad, as he analyzed it to see what went wrong with it. His collection of failed astrophotos was a fantastic resource for when I wrote "Wide-Field Astrophotography" for Willmann-Bell. He gratiously let me use not only his good images in the book, but the duds as samples of what happens when specific technical points are wrong during the imaging session. Of course, I had to explain in the book that Dick was a superior photographer and he kept the clunkers as instructional examples. I suspect he graduated from film to digital after we drifted apart in recent years, but I will say he had the film photo darkroom from hell back in the day. I used it to create some of the illustrations in my first book, The Superpower Space Race, then again for my Wide-Field Astrophotography, and it was fantastic.
His modesty did not reflect what he actually accomplished in the military during defense of our country in three wars: 67 combat missions in WW II flying P-38s out of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, 100 jet missions in Korea, and a whopping 274 combat missions in Vietnam, a record at the time. He was also the 12th most decorated pilot at the time. Dick Mischke was a REAL American Hero and one of the last true gentlemen; and he will truly be missed by all his many friends and family.
