THE ECLIPSE OF REASON

Having seen two total eclipses, in Quebec in 1963, and in the Caribbean in 1998,  I  cannot overemphasize the importance of :

• Getting to a viewing site dead in the middle of the centerline. 
• Not forgetting to look at the rest of the sky.

We  were on the  nearest island,  about  ten miles distant, in 1998, and while the corona was spectacular, we experienced shorter totality, a bizarre dark green sky eerily recalling a Giotto fresco, and few stars visible on our side of the centerline between Antigua and Guadeloupe.

In contrast, from the dead center vantage of 1963,  the whole Solar System, from Mercury to Saturn was visible to the naked eye laid out in a spectacular straight line on both sides of the sun, in a  black sky backlit by the Milky Way- things of  unexpected and uneclipsed wonder.