Eclipse chasers: the families who plan years ahead for two minutes of darkness

Jared Kho will stand on a ship off the coast of La Coruña next August, waiting for the Sun to disappear. It will be his fifth total solar eclipse. His father, Koh Joo Beng, has seen fourteen. His mother, Janet Tay, has documented every expedition in a travel journal that stretches back nearly two decades.

The family is part of a dedicated community that treats eclipse chasing as a serious hobby, one that demands years of planning, thousands of dollars per trip and a willingness to travel to the ends of the Earth for a phenomenon that lasts, at most, a few minutes.

Why the sea beats the shore

For the August 2026 event, which crosses Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, the Kho family has again chosen a cruise ship. The vessel will position itself near the centre line of the path of totality, avoiding the traffic jams, sold-out hotels and crowded viewing sites expected on land. The Sun will sit only about ten degrees above the horizon shortly before sunset, so an unobstructed horizon matters more than usual.

"Without carefully planning your observing location, a row of trees or the roof of a hotel could block your view," Jared wrote in a Facebook group for eclipse observers. He and his father have even published a handbook for the 2026 eclipse to help others pick the best spots within Spain's path of totality.

An expensive inheritance

Eclipse chasing runs in the family. Jared's first totality came in 2012 aboard a ship in the South Pacific when he was 23. His father, a retired electrical engineer who later earned a master's degree in astronomy, handles the equipment: multiple cameras, lenses, solar filters, 360-degree cameras and drones. His mother, a former accountant, begins booking flights and accommodation roughly two years in advance for trips lasting one to two weeks.

"Eclipse chasing is an expensive hobby," Jared said, estimating each trip costs more than $3,000 per person. He designs training programmes for Singapore's public healthcare system; his parents are retired. "Dad loves astronomy, Mum loves travelling. Eclipse chasing is the natural marriage of their passions," he said.

"The only thing that stays the same, wherever you are, is the sequence of the eclipse itself. There's always a period of waiting and anticipation as the Sun becomes more and more obscured, followed by an explosion of excitement when totality arrives."

Science catches up to the feeling

Researchers are now quantifying what chasers have long described. A study of more than 1,300 people during the 2024 total solar eclipse found exceptionally high levels of awe, with many participants still reporting those feelings months later. Some recalled crying or falling silent. A 2025 paper in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that people who experienced totality in a group reported stronger positive emotions, deeper awe and a greater sense of connection than those who watched alone.

Jared has seen the same pattern across four continents: Idaho Falls in 2017, Exmouth in 2023, Kerrville, Texas in 2024. Clouds and wind in Texas turned totality into a "peek-a-boo" experience, his mother wrote, but the sequence, anticipation, then the sudden plunge into darkness, never changes.

"An eclipse is an event on a cosmic scale: the alignment of celestial bodies reminds us how small we humans are on this Earth," Jared said. "Seen from that perspective, it becomes obvious to me that what I value most is the limited time I have on this planet."