{"id":30501,"date":"2025-06-25T18:40:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T18:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30501"},"modified":"2025-06-25T19:24:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T19:24:57","slug":"fred-espenak-astrophysicist-known-as-mr-eclipse-dies-at-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30501","title":{"rendered":"Fred Espenak, Astrophysicist Known as Mr. Eclipse, Dies at 73"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He chased eclipses for five decades, wrote several books about them and worked with NASA to make data accessible to nonscientist sky gazers.<\/p>\n

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Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist known as Mr. Eclipse who created maps and charts that eclipse chasers like him used to pinpoint the best locations to witness the breathtaking choreography of celestial bodies, died on June 1 at his home in Portal, Ariz., near the border of New Mexico. He was 73.<\/p>\n

The cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, said his wife, Patricia Totten Espenak, known as Ms. Eclipse. The Espenaks met during a solar eclipse in India and danced to Bonnie Tyler\u2019s ballad \u201cTotal Eclipse of the Heart\u201d at their wedding.<\/p>\n

During five decades of chasing eclipses, Mr. Espenak wrote several books about them, notably \u201cFive Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses\u201d<\/a> (2006), \u200b\u200ba two-volume<\/a>, 742-page treatise written with the Belgian meteorologist Jean Meeus; operated four websites devoted to celestial statistics, including MrEclipse.com<\/a>; and witnessed 52 solar eclipses, 31 of which were total.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Among the books Mr. Espenak wrote was \u201cFive Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses\u201d (2006), \u200b\u200ba two-volume collaboration with the Belgian meteorologist Jean Meeus.<\/span>Astropixels Publishing<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen you see a total eclipse, you will realize for the first time what the meaning of awesome is,\u201d Mr. Espenak told<\/a> Time magazine in 2017. \u201cEverything else is mundane.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Espenak saw his first total eclipse in 1970 as a nerdy teenager, driving 600 miles from his home on Staten Island to a grassy field behind a motel in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

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He chased eclipses for five decades, wrote several books about them and worked with NASA to make data accessible to nonscientist sky gazers.Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist known as Mr. Eclipse who created maps and charts that eclipse chasers like him used to pinpoint the best locations to witness the breathtaking choreography of celestial bodies, died on June 1 at his home in Portal, Ariz., near the border of New Mexico. He was 73.The cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, said his wife, Patricia Totten Espenak, known as Ms. Eclipse. The Espenaks met during a solar eclipse in India and danced to Bonnie Tyler\u2019s ballad \u201cTotal Eclipse of the Heart\u201d at their wedding.During five decades of chasing eclipses, Mr. Espenak wrote several books about them, notably \u201cFive Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses\u201d (2006), \u200b\u200ba two-volume, 742-page treatise written with the Belgian meteorologist Jean Meeus; operated four websites devoted to celestial statistics, including MrEclipse.com; and witnessed 52 solar eclipses, 31 of which were total.Among the books Mr. Espenak wrote was \u201cFive Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses\u201d (2006), \u200b\u200ba two-volume collaboration with the Belgian meteorologist Jean Meeus.Astropixels Publishing\u201cWhen you see a total eclipse, you will realize for the first time what the meaning of awesome is,\u201d Mr. Espenak told Time magazine in 2017. \u201cEverything else is mundane.\u201dMr. Espenak saw his first total eclipse in 1970 as a nerdy teenager, driving 600 miles from his home on Staten Island to a grassy field behind a motel in North Carolina.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30503,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30504,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions\/30504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}