So, the eclipse came to Kona town on 7-11 in 1991 for 3 days, the Hotels and condos were packed, restaurants and bars were over flowing, stores had eclipse hats & t-shirts, It was a party.
Magazines and TV stations had photographers and reporters scouting around looking for the best backgrounds.
Obviously, the top of Mauna Kea at 13,803 ft was taken and only open to a select few.
The weather “Gods” (names withheld) had chosen the abandoned Waikoloa horse stables as the next best location on Earth to witness this once in 800 years’ event and those weather Gods were there too with us all.
Tripods pitched and jostled in the dark for the best spot. The telescopes were aimed and ready for the exact moment of this epic eclipse event, others wore protective glasses.
Roosters were brought in to see if they would “crow” at the eclipses re-dawn. They did, or better yet, never stopped, someone might have thought to tell the mainland experts that Hawaiian crows are on Hawaiian time and they crow in the day, they crow at night, all night all day eclipse or not, they just crow, crow, crow.
It soon became clear we were under clouds and not going to see the great eclipse as predicted.
The sky was perfectly clear 40 miles back at my condo where the neighbors opened up their fridges, fired up the smoker and had a pool party while getting great shots with their point and shooters. I got nothing.