The annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023 from Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico

The centerline of the annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023 passed through
Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, and I was very fortunate to travel there
with Chirag Upreti and Antoine Ribaut from the AAA. We gathered at the campground two
days before the eclipse with my friend Rush Dudley who had all the camping equipment. We
woke up at 4:15 AM the day of the eclipse to beat the crowd at the entrance gate. We managed
to secure the locations we had scouted out the day before. It was amazing to experience the
eclipse among the sacred great houses of Chaco. We set up by the one called Pueblo Bonito,
which has stood for over 1,100 years.
At full eclipse, the moon was centered within the sun, and we saw the "ring of fire" typical of an
annular eclipse. The symmetry of the circle was incredible. Looking through the eclipse glasses
at the ring in the sky was the best experience, and we had four minutes to see this alignment.
Here are some photos from the day.
(for caption purposes numbers correspond to file names of the photos)
1. A composite showing near 2 nd contact (left), full eclipse (center) and 3 rd contact (right).
2. This composite sequence is 34 frames combined, taken at 5-minute intervals at the
Pueblo Bonito site.
3. The scene during totality. It was visibly darker as the eclipse became deeper, so I took a
few shots at the same camera settings to show this effect.
4. And about 30 minutes after totality.
5. A plant nearby projected the ring image of the sun on the ground through the gaps in
the leaves, which acted like a pinhole lens.
6. Chirag, Antoine and I took the required group photo with our eclipse glasses on.