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 Total Solar Eclipse of 2010 July 11
 El Calafate, Argentina

After leaving for French Polynesia in early July, I welcomed the eclipse chasers of my international group on July 7th in Papeete. On July 9th morning, we boarded our private charter flight to the Tatakoto atoll, located nearly 1,300 kilometers east of Papeete in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We then stayed for the next few days in local houses in the Tumukuru village. The two days prior the eclipse were mostly dedicated to setup our viewing site on an isolated motu, to explore the atoll and its natural wonders and to observe the starry night sky. On July 10th afternoon, part of the group went by boat to the Tahunatara motu and spent the night there to be ready for the eclipse. And on July 11th morning we were greeted by 4 minutes and 28 seconds of totality in between rainstorms. Our return in Papeete occurred on July 12th early afternoon.
My "Eclipse-City" associates took care of the groups in argentinean Patagonia where they observed the black Sun from an El Calafate overlook. Our special eclipse flight over the Southern Pacific Ocean was cancelled due to technical problems, but all the passengers got to view the marvelous spectacle from El Calafate with the ground group.

You can use this solar eclipse calculator to compute the local circumstances of the eclipse, and the solar eclipse timer notifies the beginning of the various events. A time exposure calculator is there to help you choose your camera settings.


Click on thumbnails for a larger version

Page 1 |  Page "Bora Bora" |  Page "Tatakoto-Tahunatara" |  This is page "Eclipse" |  Page "Google Map" |  Page "Cloud Cover"
Viewing Sites —>  Tatakoto |  El Calafate |  Eclipse Flight

Videos —>  Tatakoto |  El Calafate
El Calafate Patagonia Argentina Eclipse-City Totality Total Solar Eclipse 2010
Totality from the El Calafate overlook in Argentina
(EurAstro at Eclipse-City’s viewing site)

El Calafate Patagonia Argentina Eclipse-City Totality Shadow Cone Total Solar Eclipse 2010
Totality and umbral cone from the El Calafate overlook in Argentina
(EurAstro at Eclipse-City’s viewing site)

One of the problems to solve for this eclipse was to make sure the whole totality with the solar corona would be entirely visible over the Andes to the northwest from the viewing site.
The elevation profile study shown below and done with the latest revision of my interactive mapping tools, clearly depicts the reality. The atmospheric refraction and terrain elevation are both taken into account. One can easily see that the terrain located sixty-four kilometers to the northwest is about eight tenths of a degree under the Sun and that there is a perfect match between the picture and the elevation profile computations (Δmin of eight tenths of a degree, angular elevation between the distant peaks and the bottom of the Sun, is indeed correct).

2010 Total Solar Eclipse Elevation Profile Maximum
Elevation profile simulation in the maximum eclipse’s line of sight

2010 Total Solar Eclipse Satellite Cloud Cover Map
2010 July 11 satellite cloud cover 3 hours before the time of totality

Viewing Sites —>  Tatakoto |  El Calafate |  Eclipse Flight

Videos —>  Tatakoto |  El Calafate
Page 1 |  Page "Bora Bora" |  Page "Tatakoto-Tahunatara" |  This is page "Eclipse" |  Page "Google Map" |  Page "Cloud Cover"

Last page update on May 10, 2010.
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