Fred Espenak, Astrophysicist Known as Mr. Eclipse, Dies at 73

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’s ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart” at their wedding.During five decades of chasing eclipses, Mr. Espenak wrote several books about them, notably “Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses” (2006), ​​a 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 “Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses” (2006), ​​a two-volume collaboration with the Belgian meteorologist Jean Meeus.Astropixels Publishing“When you see a total eclipse, you will realize for the first time what the meaning of awesome is,” Mr. Espenak told Time magazine in 2017. “Everything else is mundane.”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.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 log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.