I flew from London to Manilla in the Philippines and changed planes to the southern island of Mindanao. This is where I saw the eclipse described below. I stayed in this island nation for 6 weeks. Next stop was a two week tour of Japan followed by a ferry ride to South Korea (6 weeks). Flights took me to Taiwan (2 weeks) and Hong Kong (3 weeks).
A friend from London, Giulietta Cinque, joined me for a three month adventure in China (bus, train, boat and rickety plane!). We returned to Hong Kong via Macao and then I was alone again.
Further flights took me to Thailand (a month) and my journey ended with a six month trip around east, south and central India. I flew back to London from Bombay.
One day I relaxed in the main plaza. A group of school girls shyly approached. Hello, said one, where are you from? I said I came from England. They smiled and continued. What language do you speak in England? It was my turn to smile. English I told them. Can you teach us? they asked. What would you like me to teach you? I responded. Science. Oh, I said, Which Science? The wanted me to teach them about astronomy; in particular about the forthcoming eclipse. Questions and answers passed between us; others arrived and after a few minutes a large crowd had formed around me. The eclipse was on everybody's mind.
As the crowd drifted away, a young man called Jojo approached me. He asked if I would like to be interviewed by the local radio station, called DXCI FM. It sounded fun and I had never been on the radio before. The staff told me that several groups of professional astronomers had arrived in town. They had been asked for interviews but had declined due to being busy preparing their equipment for the eclipse. I, on the other hand, was not a professional. I was here a week before the eclipse to absorb the atmosphere and meet people. The station controller appeared to like me. Would I be interested in answering questions during a phone-in? Yes. I would. Before I knew it I was in the studio. I sat with a pretty female DJ called Lady Love. For two hours she played disco records and took phone calls from people asking questions about the eclipse. I answered questions like:
It was a fun time, everybody was friendly and I received many invitations to dinner. My answers were a mixture of fact and humour. I was invited back twice more. Since the station was next door to where I lived, I didn't have far to go.
One day in the plaza, I noticed people on the roof of city hall. Journalists were planning to use this as their vantage point. I went to the roof and met Ken. He was the American doctor with whom I had seen the 1983 eclipse in Java. We both decided that this roof would make an excellent viewing site for the eclipse. The city and its people would be laid out below us, the eclipsed sun above, and the distant mountains all around. It was not difficult to obtain permits to watch the eclipse from here: the mayor had heard about my exploits on the radio! We were still there as the sun set. A crowd of people, young and old had appeared and I gave a star party and another eclipse talk. That night I arrived home clutching gifts of pineapples, beer, bamboo pencil cases, bananas, coconuts, and a model of a fish made of shells. People were certainly friendly.
Eclipse morning at 5:30 was clear. There were clouds over the distant volcanic peaks. It took me five minutes to walk to City Hall and stake my place overlooking the plaza. Next to me there appeared Ken's triple headed tripod, as used in Java. Behind us were press photographers from around the world, groups of astronomers from Manila, Japan and the USA, some college students, and a handful of travellers. Patchy clouds appeared in the sky.
"This is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen".
 7:30 AM - No Eclipse - The sky is normal |
 8:40am - 80% Eclipse - The sky is dark but the clouds are bright |
 9:00 AM - 98% Eclipse - The sky and clouds are dark |
 9:04 AM - Totality - Darkness in the morning |
One of the students, Salvacion, told me of a festival of dancing near the market and took Ken and I there - the day had been turned into a public holiday. The city authorities had given out Eclipse Certificates to everybody. The few foreigners were being asked to sign these. Everybody wanted their photograph taken with us. I amassed dozens of pieces of paper with (mainly female) names and addresses. Several people interviewed me using tape recorders. I assumed this was yet another student project. Instead I found myself quoted in some of the next day's newspapers.
All photographs, unless otherwise credited, by Kryss Katsiavriades (© 1988).
Later on my journey when I reached Manilla, I met one of the journalists who provided me with an eclipse photo taken by the Philippine Astronomical Society.
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