Why Mexico is drawing some of the most veteran eclipse-seekers.
A tight community of ‘umbraphiles’
Paul Maley grew up in Texas at the height of the Space Age, mesmerized by solar eclipses, including one he photographed as a young teen, its image projected on a lawn chair.
Over the years, his interest took him far beyond any Texas backyard. Today, the 76-year-old is among America’s most prolific eclipse chasers, viewing the events in remote villages and sandy deserts in 42 countries, even Antarctica.
On Monday, the retired NASA contractor aims to notch his 84th eclipse – and 30th total eclipse – while floating in the Pacific Ocean on a ship west of Mazatlán, Mexico.
A total eclipse is the Holy Grail for diehard umbraphiles – “shadow lovers” – and this month, they’re booking trips south. That’s because the area around Mazatlán, Durango and Torreón, Mexico, provides the likeliest chance of clear skies and the longest period of darkness.
They include Fred Espanek, a former NASA astrophysicist who has viewed 30 total eclipses, including one so remote, he flew into a landing strip in the Libyan desert lit by vehicle headlights.
Joseph Izen, 67, a retired physics professor, plans to join an RV caravan to a borrowed ranch north of Durango, Mexico. He is newer to the club: “As we say in the community, this will be my fourth time in shadow,” he said.
For more than 40 years, Maley has organized eclipse-watching trips in connection with the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society, introducing newbies to the profound experience that has driven him around the globe.
At the otherworldly moment of totality, “I’ve seen people cry. I’ve seen them scream. I’ve seen them run around and just make wild exclamations,” Maley said. “We had one guy that became so overcome, they had to bring him a paper bag ... he was hyperventilating.” He’s seen people with “newage” views who sought to “absorb the energy” they connected with eclipses.
On a viewing trip to Peru during the 1990s, Maley met an American woman whom he realized had lived near him back home. Lynn Palmer would later become his wife and still travels with him.
The effort and expense to see an eclipse don’t always pan out. For the Antarctica viewing in 2021, passengers took a cruise and paid up to $20,000. But cloud cover blocked the view. On top of that, the captain turned back to Argentina early because of bad weather, limiting the shore visits. Participants were “noticeably upset,” Maley recalled, and some blamed him.
“It was bad luck,” he said. “We always tell everyone that regardless of where the eclipse is, there’s no way we can guarantee that it will be clear.”
If eclipses are a reminder of people’s place in a vast universe, weather complications in chasing them – which once included trying to watch an eclipse in Georgia next to a chicken coop in the rain – were also a reminder to him of all that is beyond our human control.
The eclipse-chasing elite
While some veteran eclipse-chasers are solar researchers, others are tour operators, photographers or simply die-hard enthusiasts who chase with their own resources, said Kate Russo, who has written several books on the psychology of eclipse-chasers.
It’s a small community, said Espanek, who developed eclipse predictions as part of his NASA work: “People who have seen 10 or more total solar eclipses, I doubt there are more than a couple hundred of us.”
Two Americans jointly hold the Guinness World Records title for seeing the most total eclipses: 35. Jay Pasachoff shared the record before he died two years ago. He saw more than 70 eclipses, including one in Easter Island, Chile, that he described as a reunion in an 2010 op-ed in the New York Times titled “Why I Never Miss a Solar Eclipse.”
“On this Pacific outpost, 2,200 miles west of the South American coast, hundreds of us have gathered, exchanging warm greetings and catching up on life since we last saw one another – in the Galápagos five years ago, or in Zambia nine years ago, or in Papua New Guinea 16 years ago,” he wrote. “Having once stood in the umbra, the Moon’s shadow, during a solar eclipse, we are driven to do so again and again, whenever the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun.”
Russo said it’s the experience of totality that drives most chasers. That’s because it provides reactions akin to “primitive fear” and a “sense of wrongness” related to an environment that seems out of line with the normal world.
Veteran chasers describe being hooked by feelings that made their hair stand up on their neck or gave them chills – and got them coming back for more.
“As soon as that eclipse was over, I realized that this could not be a once-in-a-lifetime event for me. I had to see another one,” Espanek said.
Izen saw his first eclipse in 1979 and most recently saw one in Australia, where the jetlagged enthusiast told an Australian TV reporter, “Seeing totality and seeing my children born – it’s tough to say which is more exciting.”
Chasers flock to Mexico
A decades-long totaleclipse drought for the continental United States ended in 2017. NASA estimates that 215 million U.S. adults viewed that eclipse directly or virtually.
Maley was thrilled to see interest in eclipses skyrocket afterward.
“That was a big moment,” he said, one that led many to make yearsahead plans for viewing this year’s eclipse. On one Solar Eclipse Chasers Facebook group, a man said that he reserved a place in Mazatlán four years ago.
On Monday, the shadow will cross Mexico over 25 minutes, passing Durango, Torreón and Monclova as it heads northeast. In the middle of it will be David Gedalia, a 56-year-old amateur astronomer who has seen three total eclipses and 10 partial ones. The Southern California resident is driving to Concordia, Mexico, in a camper truck in an RV caravan, to ensure safety while traveling through the countryside. He said the cost and time are worth it. Staying home would be “almost like watching somebody ride a roller coaster on TV, rather than riding a roller coaster yourself.”
Maley will be offshore with 186 people for a 10day cruise on a small Swan Hellenic cruise ship, at a cost of about $14,000 for a couple in one room. If the clouds roll in, he said, they can try to motor to a clearer location and work with the crew to position the ship for the best viewing.
Being off the coast will provide up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds of totality, close to the maximum. At sea, he said, the sight is just as arresting as it is on land, appearing as if the sun is setting in every direction.
Interest in eclipse travel may spike after this year’s eclipse, which will pass over more than 31 million residents in the U.S. alone and be the last visible in the lower 48 states until 2044.
Maley says he is already planning a series of future eclipse trips, including to Egypt in 2027.
If he makes it to every eclipse between now and 2031, he’ll reach a significant milestone: viewing 100 solar eclipses of different types. That’s if the stars align for him.
But as eclipses have taught him, he can’t control whether that will happen.
Veteran chasers describe being hooked by feelings that made their hair stand up on their neck or gave them chills – and got them coming back for more.