by Anyone who has been keeping up with our solar eclipse content prior to the April 8th total solar eclipse will no doubt be familiar with the name Jamie Carter. After all, he is our ‘go to’ eclipse expert and a valued contributor to Space.com and has written a total of over 35 solar eclipse pieces over the past few months exclusively for Space.com.
We are excited to announce that his hard work for us and other news outlets, such as Forbes, has paid off with Carter being awarded the 2023 Solar Physics Division (SPD) Popular Media Award.
On April 11, the Popular Media Awards Committee made SPD announced the awards for 2023, one journalist and one scientist were awarded the prize.
Carter won the journalist award “Your body of work preparing the public for the 2024 eclipse. Many articles on Forbes and Space.com during 2023.” according to the notice. The scientist award was presented to Sarah Gibson, Mark Miesch, Amy Davenport, Damon Burke, Daniel Zietlow for their “My Corona” (song and video)
Related: Best total solar eclipses to watch out for in the next decade
We spoke to Jamie about how it felt to win the award and asked him about his plans for future eclipse content.
Were you surprised to find out you won?
Absolutely! When I look back at the articles I’ve written about total solar eclipses it’s embarrassing because I can’t even begin to count them. I think it’s been around 400 in the last year, but it could be more. By mid-2023, eclipses went from being something I wrote about occasionally to a full-time job. By March of this year, I had interviewed about 40 scientists and event organizers and was working about 14 hours a day writing exclusively about the US eclipse. It was tiring, but fun to see the results.
Millions of people in the United States and around the world read my articles and, I hope, went to see the eclipse. I’ve had a few messages from people telling me that it was my articles that made them decide to go see their first total solar eclipse, which made me very happy.
Why are solar eclipses so passionate that so many articles are written about them?
I think of total solar eclipses as a hand you can hold that can lead you around the world on great adventures.
By pursuing something in the sky rather than on the ground, you travel to places you’ve never thought of, mostly avoiding tourist traps. You see the world as nature and the intended cosmos, one moon shadow at a time. It is travel of the most authentic kind.
As well as being one of nature’s most profound experiences, total solar eclipses also fuel my interest in travel and astronomy. However, they are dynamic events that can be difficult to understand, with science, geography and meteorology at odds.
Most people don’t know anything because they occur so rarely in one place, which means I’m always careful to write about the basics. Most travel writers surprisingly don’t know about total solar eclipses, so I’m trying to fill that gap. My job is to distill complex science into usable information that is easy to understand while ignoring received wisdom and dispelling myths and assumptions.
As the son of two geographers, I grew up surrounded by maps and we usually traveled off the beaten track. There is nothing I love more than looking at the map of the upcoming eclipse and making a plan to explore a part of the world I have never been to.
I have experienced eclipses from beaches in Australia and England, from a tennis court in Chile, and even from a ship off Antarctica.
As many eclipse chasers will tell you when they’ve seen it in totality, the thrill of seeing the sunstill, but the pull of seeing new places is just as powerful.
What lies ahead? Are you taking a break or are you already preparing for future solar eclipses?
One of the results of the April 8 total solar eclipse is a new cohort of people who want to see the next eclipse. As editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, these are my people! There is such a thirst for information about upcoming eclipses that I am already preparing articles and books on the next total solar eclipses in 2026 and 2027.
But I’m really looking forward to the summer when I can maybe take a year off from writing about eclipses and work on something completely different — ‘solstice’ probably coming up later this year .
When Is The Next Eclipse? A traveller’s guide to total solar eclipses 2026-2034
Carter has also been busy creating a complete eclipse travel guide for the next 10 years of total solar eclipses, taking us to 2034.
“The book is full of ‘secret’ experiences that only a total eclipse and travel nerd like me could find!” Carter told Space.com
Inside you’ll find important information about upcoming total solar eclipses designed to help you plan the perfect eclipse event.
The next total solar eclipse [in 2026] it will give people the chance to see a “golden crown” sink into the Mediterranean, after that Perseid meteor shower. Another one in 2030 will engulf Namibia’s skeleton coast the moonand shade at the right time of year to watch the The Milky Way after sunset.
“When Is the Next Eclipse? A traveler’s guide to total solar eclipses 2026-2034:” $9.99 from Amazon
View Jamie Carter’s eclipse travel guide “When Is The Next Eclipse? A traveller’s guide to total solar eclipses 2026-2034” available on Amazon.View Deal
