In the summer of 1973, a few weeks after graduating from Science Hill High School, I traveled with an expedition to the Sahara Desert for a total eclipse of the Sun. Nowadays, thirty years later, eclipse expeditions are mounted for fun, but in 1973 they were still primarily scientific affairs. This one was led by Dr. Donald Menzel and crewed by Earthwatch (then the one or two year old Educational Expeditions International). The expedition was partially funded by the National Geographic Society.  As I saw it, I was there to see if I could provide photos of the same calibre as their photographer. We'll never know for sure: the article was killed in the autumn. I had six photos retained for the layout (as far as I've been able to determine, only the photographer on assignment for the Geographic also had more than two).  But who knows how the final spread would have run.  I've always thought it might have been a career-making summer.

I was organizing some files in 2004 -- real files, letters in folders, slides in sleeves, not names on a computer disk -- when I ran across hundreds of my photos from the desert.  I scanned some, cleaned up three decades of dirt and scratches, opened up some shadows, repaired some fading, and took a look back at what I got when I spent a month in the Sahara waiting for the shadow of the Moon.