TV REVIEWS : ‘The Great Eclipse’: Enlightened Viewing

Sun worshipers and nature lovers are not the only ones who will get a kick watching “The Great Eclipse,” airing at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28. This hourlong show about the dedicated band of eclipse chasers who came from all over the globe to view an extraordinary solar eclipse in La Paz, Mexico, on July 11, 1991, is an enjoyable look at a rich assortment of scientists and partyers as they wait for the big event.

Writer-director Robert Amram has just the right touch, lightening what could easily have been a tedious, textbook-dry astronomy lesson with a quick pace and the right mix of comments from scores of people, which range from the goofy to the profound. Particularly appealing is the just-plain-folksiness of the event--tourists, scientist, locals and foreigners are having a darned good time and it shows.

Actually, that’s an understatement: The countdown to the totality (the minutes of total eclipse that picture postcards are made of), the excitement during the actual eclipse and the letdown afterward resemble nothing so much as great sex--and all the interviewees want to know “When can we do it again?”

Besides the fun, eclipse-chasing does have its serious scientific side. An eclipse helped confirm Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and modern investigations are helping to decipher our own atmospheric riddles. As the narrator says, “When the sun vanishes, every creature must pay heed.”

For those of us who didn’t make it to Baja and who couldn’t see it here because much of the Southland was covered by clouds, there is full footage of the eclipse, which lasted more than six minutes. It is a bit flat on the small tube--where is big-screen IMAX when we need it?--but beggars can’t be choosers: The next annular (ring-like) eclipse of the sun will take place around the year 2241 (they occur about every 250 years).