BY KAREN BOSSICK
Bryan Brewer’s interest in eclipses started with organizing an eclipse watching party for college classmates getting together for a reunion.
The experience of watching a total eclipse over the Columbia River on Feb. 26, 1979, proved so mesmerizing that he not only wrote a book about eclipses but began traveling the world chasing eclipses.
“For many people, it’s a very emotional experience similar to the first time you see the Grand Canyon,” said Brewer, who works with startup firms in Seattle. “Psychological researchers are even looking at how awe like that you experience during an eclipse affects the body and mind, calming the nervous system and opening up heart and mind.”
Brewer, author of “ECLIPSE,” lives in Seattle but has chosen to view The Great American Eclipse in Sun Valley at the invitation of his friend Diana Hewett.
While here, Brewer will take part in The Community Library’s third annual Lit Walk. He will offer a brief slide presentation about the history and science behind eclipses and field questions at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 Friday, Aug. 18,at the library (see Eye on Sun Valley’s Aug. 11 story, “Nothing Will Eclipse Third Annual Lit Walk.”)
He will also lead a short discussion about the eclipse Sunday evening at the Sun Valley Lodge.
His 110-page book “ECLIPSE”—a handsome book full of history, science, awe, photographs, charts and maps—is available at Chapter One Bookstore, the Sun Valley gift shop and Amazon.
“I started researching eclipses while organizing the reunion and I realized that, while there was a lot of information, there were no good books. They were either out of date or too technical. I couldn’t find a good book so I wrote one myself,” said Brewer, whose book is now in its third printing.
Don’t panic over recent reports that some areas previously thought to be in totality might not be, Brewer says.
Yes, maps that show a 70-mile wide path of totality where the moon will block 100 percent of the sun could be off by as much as a half-mile on both the northern and southern ends. But people can play it safe by moving a little further into the center than they might have previously planned, said Brewer.
“The prediction of when and where as far as timing is accurate within one second,” he said. “But the actual edge of the path is difficult to get precisely. While we know when the sun and earth and moon line up, we don’t know the exact size of the sun. It’s a rolling ball of gas—not a hard surface. And, so, its size is difficult to pin down. So, the exact line where totality begins could be a few hundred feet different or a half-mile different.”
A total solar eclipse takes place every 1.5 years. But it usually takes place over the ocean or some remote location that’s difficult for the majority of people to get to.
It’s been nearly 40 years since a total solar eclipse crossed part of the Lower 48 and 99 years since it spanned the breadth of the continent, as it will do on Aug. 21.
It will be 152 years before another passes over Sun Valley.
Brewer has seen four total eclipses, including one in Brazil in 1994 while leading an eclipse tour, one during a 1998 Caribbean cruise and one during a tour of Germany in 1999.
The main attraction is the sun’s corona, an aura of plasma that extends millions of kilometers into space but is only visible during a total solar eclipse.
“It’s simply breathtaking,” said Brewer. “And having it go dark in the middle of the day is downright eerie. It doesn’t get completely dark, but it’s like deep twilight. Third, if you use your imagination, you can see yourself standing right in the line of the sun and moon and earth.”
Many ancient cultures thought of both solar and lunar eclipses as omens of doom.
Christopher Columbus worked that to his advantage during his fourth voyage to the Americas when he got stranded in Jamaica.
“While he was awaiting rescue, the natives fed him and his men. But, as time went on, they started withholding food,” Brewer said. “Columbus knew the eclipse was coming so he gathered the natives around and told them, ‘If you don’t feed us, I will make the moon go away.’ Of course, when they saw the moon disappear, they pleaded with him to bring it back. And they continued feeding him well until help arrived.”
DID YOU KNOW?
The sun is 432,500 miles from edge to center. The Earth’s circumference at the Equator is that 24,901 miles so that means we would have to walk nearly twice around the Equator just to get to the center of the sun.