Category Archives: astronomy

There’s a Sucker Hole Born Every Minute

In stargazing circles, the phenomenon known as the “sucker hole” is a very real one. It usually manifests itself during eclipses and comet apparitions, and leads great numbers of people to search anywhere for a good hole in the clouds. I’ve been taken with sucker hole fever a few times, most notably during the 1991 total solar eclipse. We went to Hawai’i to see it as part of an expedition sponsored by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Our chosen viewing site was a big field in Waikoloa, and was much-touted as being on the “dry” side of the Big Island. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, which we discovered after being awakened at 4 a.m. in our Kona hotel room, pushed onto a bus, and trucked out to the viewing site. As the light of day grew, so did our horror at finding out that the sky on the supposedly “dry” side of the island was, in fact, completely clouded over. We searched in vain for a sucker hole as totality approached, and were rewarded with a few glimpses of the eclipsed Sun through some pretty gauzy-looking sucker holes. Mostly though, we just watched the clouds get dark and then light again. Ironically, if we’d stayed in Kona (which had a less-wonderful forecast) we would have seen the eclipse because that area had clear skies!

Undaunted, we pushed our luck again in 1998, when we saw a great eclipse through clear skies in the Caribbean. (You can see our pix here.)

Second contact, 1999 solar eclipse, © 1999, Carolyn Collins Petersen
Second contact, 1999 solar eclipse, © 1999, Carolyn Collins Petersen

In 1999, we decided to to try for the hat trick, so we went to Garching bei Muenchen in Germany. This time we didn’t have to worry about racing a cruise ship around in case of clouds, and we swore we weren’t going to drive all over the countryside looking for a sucker hole. So, we sat in a lovely “platz” outside our hotel and hoped for the best. For a couple of hours, we watched it rain. And, we searched in vain for sucker holes.

By golly, we got sucker holes. And just as totality began, we got to see the eclipse. The break in the rain clouds lasted for several minutes, and then within a half hour of the end of the eclipse, the rain resumed and we all sat around in the biergarten under umbrellas, toasting our good fortune. Others in our group were not so lucky—they chased sucker holes all over Bavaria and came up with nuthin’.

Diamond ring, 1999 solar eclipse, © 1999, Carolyn Collins Petersen
Diamond ring, 1999 solar eclipse, © 1999, Carolyn Collins Petersen

So, once in a while, sucker holes DO materialize during celestial events. We’re now 3 for 5 in eclipse attempts. Our first one was in 1979, which we saw from Wolf Point International airport in Wolf Point, Montana. Our second was in Helsinki harbor, which was a sort of partial success due to low-lying clouds battling a rising eclipsed Sun. Our third was the ill-fated Hawai’i expedition; our fourth was in the Caribbean, and our fifth was Germany.

No such luck for this year’s fabulous comet McNaught. We got spoiled by the Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp apparitions, and hoped to recreate the wonder of comet-gazing this year. I fear we’ve lost our chance to see.

Speaking of Germany and sucker holes, I got a funny story from my Google News Alerts today, datelined a few months back. It seems this German attorney is taking advantage of a law that allows kidnap victims to claim compensation from the state. He’s offering to go to bat for anybody who claims to have been kidnapped by aliens. No word on whether he’s got any takers, yet, but he thinks this is a growth area for his legal business. Wow.

No Luck

Well, so much for seeing the comet during the day TODAY. Our little corner of New England is wet, cold, icy, and rainy. Time’s a runnin’ out to see McNaught, and I may have to content myself with viewing it in other people’s pictures. It wouldn’t be the first time, nor will it be the last. That’s the tantalizing thing about backyard astronomy: sometimes you get to see the cool stuff; sometimes you don’t. But, the views—when they’re good—are what keeps you coming back to the stars for another helping.

Comet Hale-Bopp, from Dale Ogrens comet image collection
Comet Hale-Bopp, from Dale Ogren's comet image collection

I remember back in 1996 when we had Comet Hyakutake gracing the skies. No shortage of clear, cold nights THAT year. And then, later on, I had a chance to view Hale-Bopp from a variety of locations. Even though I studied comet plasma tails in grad school—and mind you, plasma tails can be VERY cool to study—the sight of those vast, sweeping dust tails was just sublime. SO otherworldly. I could stand there and think about my science AND appreciate the beauty of the night sky with a comet arcing across it. The scene in the image below is what I see in my mind’s eye when I think of those wonderful comet-gazing experiences.