Chronicle of the most anticipated astronomical event of the year.
Los Antiguos, Santa Cruz. Southern Patagonia, Argentina
October 2, 2024
I still remember the exact moment in 2020 when I arrived in Patagonia for to live at the end of November (I’m was living in Buenos Aires, Argentina). A few days later, I experienced a partial solar eclipse from the canyon of the Pinturas River. A few weeks later (I don’t remember the exact dates), I interviewed Diego Hernández, a science communicator from the Galileo Galilei Planetarium in Buenos Aires, to talk about the summer night sky in Patagonia, among other topics. After the live session, we continued chatting, and it stuck with me when he said, «Get ready because in 2024, your area is going to have an eclipse!» Ufff… 2024? I thought… that’s four years away… that’s a long time! And that moment arrived just a few days ago, and it was incredible.
It was a turbulent few weeks for me, filled with uncertainty, as the weather forecast page must have grown tired of seeing my face every day, every hour, for the past month. Especially the three days leading up to the eclipse. For my photography courses, I never bothered to check it because it would only frustrate me in advance, knowing that their predictions often didn’t come true. But this time was different. A week before, they were already forecasting rain, likely snow, and strong winds. The outlook was bleak.
I wondered: Did I do the right thing by choosing to hold the event here? Should I have chosen the coast? I don’t know. It wasn’t easy for me to put this program together; I had several proposals for the project, and my initial idea was in the area of Mount San Lorenzo (inside the deepest Andes mountain range, here in Santa Cruz Province). I envisioned a beautiful postcard with the mountain in the background and the sun eclipsing.
But that dream faded after experiencing a harsh, atypical winter, rainy, snowy, with abnormal temperatures that even caused tremendous river floods very early in the season.
How difficult it was to plan something with such advance time in a Patagonia with such unpredictable weather! So I abandoned that idea. Then, I was contacted by National Parks with the proposal to be part of the program called «Eclipse Patagonia,» which involved not only the Patagonia National Park (distant from the town where I live only 17km) but also the three nearby municipalities, with contributions and talks from the Galileo Galilei Buenos Aires Planetarium, CASLEO, and the Planetarium of the Faculty of Astronomy at La Plata University.
So I decided to go with that proposal, and do it right here in the place where I live. For months, I dedicated myself to projecting the proposal, intending to do a trek, distancing ourselves from the crowds to experience our own journey. Suddenly, I found myself in that beautiful setting: far from everyone, trying to silently imagine how many people would be at that moment in the center of La Ascensión (Patagonia National Park) while we, a group of 10 people, were between the plateau and the steppe, 6 kilometers from the epicenter of the crowd. The chosen location was Puesto Amarillo, on the way to the Buenos Aires Lake plateau, within the La Ascensión Wilderness Nature Reserve, part of Patagonia National Park.
Finally, the day surprised us incredibly: a completely blue sky, with some clouds appearing occasionally, but they didn’t obstruct our view. During the trek, we enjoyed the fragrance and colors of the native flora in full bloom, the geology of the landscape surrounding us, and the occasional bird. Just before reaching the outpost, we spotted a group of several dozen «guanacos» (a kind of lama), eagerly waiting for the eclipse like we were.
