WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 45
Peruvian nights, Incan sites,
and coronal lights were all
on full display during my
recent adventure through
South America. BY JAKE PARKS
or the better part of a year, I had been
eagerly counting down the days until I
would embark on my eclipse trip through
Peru and Chile. The adventure, sponsored byAstronomy magazine in partnership with our tour company,
TravelQuest, provided an opportunity for nearly 300 partici-
pants to experience what many never get to witness with
their own eyes: a total solar eclipse.
The journey — which involved spending nights gazing
at the southern sky, tours of historic Incan sites like Machu
Picchu, and a trip to Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
— culminated with my second-ever glimpse of the Moon
blotting out the Sun. And though the main event was unbeat-
able, the road there was nearly as brilliant.
Down through Peru
Following some initial travel troubles after my departure the
morning of June 23, including a missed connecting flight and
a checked bag orphaned in Miami, I ultimately made it to
Lima, Peru, by the wee hours of June 25.
With no fresh clothing and just a couple of hours before
our next departure, I immediately attempted to wash my
essentials in the sink. Surely, the hair dryer will help me dry my
damp clothing, I thought. And it did. But what I didn’t count
on was the resulting steam bath that
left me sweating ferociously as I intro-
duced myself to my new TravelQuest
International colleagues and clients.
A staple of eclipse photog-
raphy, this series shows the
Sun’s shrinking crescent
(top right) morph into a
total eclipse (center) before
creeping back out again
(bottom left). MICHEL TOURNAY