48 ASTRONOMY • DECEMBER 2019
Surprisingly, the town below
Machu Picchu was almost as
fascinating as the ancient ruins.
Although its primary purpose
clearly was to tend to Machu
Picchu’s roughly 1.3 million annual
tourists, this did not diminish the
town’s appeal. In addition to
countless shops, there were many
restaurants with delicious food, as
well as a town square centered
around a statue of Pachacuti Inca
Yupanqui. This ninth ruler of the
Kingdom of Cusco, whose name
roughly translates to “Earth-
shaker,” is often credited with
establishing the Incan Empire
through conquests of the Cusco
Valley and beyond, eventually
expanding the Incan reach in
western South America. According
to many archeologists, Machu
Picchu itself was built as a summer
home for Pachacuti.
After spending the night in
Aguas Calientes, we returned to
our previous hotel in Sacred Valley
on June 27, where we took advan-
tage of another beautiful night to
again dissect the southern sky. The
next day, we made a quick stop at
the ancient hilltop fortress
Sacsayhuaman, which means “the
place where the hawk is situated,”
before venturing to the bustling city
of Cusco below, located just over a
mile (2 kilometers) to the south.
Situated at an elevation of about
11,200 feet (3,400 meters), Cusco is
more than 3,000 feet (915 m)
higher than the ruins of Machu
Picchu. Though this may not seem
like much, I and many others
noticed the difference. Because
many of our group had already
passed around a communal cold,
the altitude was the final straw that
put some of us on our backs. But
while I was acclimating, many
embarked on a walking tour of the
historic city, which has steep and
narrow cobblestone roads that vein
through beautiful colonial-era
buildings often built atop ancient
Incan foundations. By nightfall, I
willed myself to explore the city
and ventured to the nearby town
square, Plaza de Armas, where a
makeshift car show exemplified
the Peruvian spirit and energy that
permeates the entire city.Onward to Chile
Of course, as soon as I started
getting used to Cusco’s altitude,
it was time to press on to Chile.
Specifically, we f lew to the twin
cities of La Serena and Coquimbo,
located on the coast of the South
Pacific. These two cities, each with
a population over 200,000 and
separated by only about 8 miles
(13 km), would serve as our home
base for the eclipse.
The day after our arrival,
June 30, we were largely left to our
own devices. This allowed me to
explore the local markets, as well
as casually stroll along the nearby
beaches, where I unexpectedly
found myself within just a few feet
of a pair of resting sea lions.
By July 1, our anticipation of the
eclipse had reached a fever pitch. In
the morning, we distracted our-
selves by going on a walking tour
through La Serena. And that night,
the nearly 300 people in our groupmet for a fantastic dinner supple-
mented by pre-eclipse talks by Paul
Deans, a freelance astronomy
writer and editor with more than
four decades of experience; Jay
Anderson, a meteorologist who
specializes in predicting weather
for eclipses; and me.Eclipse day
Then came July 2, 2019: The day of
the Great South American Eclipse.- At the end of totality, Baily’s beads, which
occur when sunlight squeaks through
valleys on the limb of the Moon, popped
into a brief existence. STEPHEN MOORE - Over the course of just a few hours, the
Sun transformed from a full disk to a thin
crescent to a glowing corona before finally
setting behind a mountaintop with a chunk
of its disk still missing. STEPHEN MOORE - Avid eclipse chaser and photographer
Michel Tournay playfully dons a mask while
standing in front of his equipment in the
hours before totality on July 2. SUSAN PETRY - By placing a black, rubberized mosquito
net in front of his lens, the photographer
captured this image of the first diamond
ring with a beautiful diffraction pattern.
MICHEL TOURNAY - Local schoolchildren joined our
TravelQuest group at a soccer field in
Vicuña to share the experience of
witnessing a total solar eclipse firsthand.
JAKE PARKS
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