umbraphile

umbraphile
n.
A person who seeks out or has an intense interest in eclipses, particularly solar eclipses.
Example Citations:
A growing number of eclipse-chasers, or umbraphiles, as they are also called, travel to the corners of the earth specifically to see total solar eclipses, and tour operators have sprung up to get them there. Beyond providing the thrill of standing on the moon's shadow, or umbra, an eclipse is often the centerpiece of a travel adventure in exotic climes.
—Christina Koukkos, " Eclipse Chasing, in Pursuit of Total Awe: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/travel/17journeys.html," The New York Times, May 17, 2009
Commodities trader Rick Brown is an umbraphile. That neologism, coined by astronomer Glenn H Schneider, describes someone "addicted to the glory and majesty of total solar eclipses."
—David Gura, " On Sunday, 'Umbraphiles' Will Watch Total Solar Eclipse From 39,000 Feet: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/07/08/128386325/on-sunday-umbraphiles-will-watch-total-solar-eclipse-from-39-000-feet," NPR, July 8, 2010
Earliest Citation:
In the South Pacific in '84 they chartered a sailboat to maneuver closer to the center line of the path, and that was the one where rebels burned down their hotel the day after totality. In the Philippines in '88, however, communist insurgents called off the revolution for a few days so as not to upset the visiting umbraphiles.
—Phil McCombs, "Under the Spell of the Eclipse," The Washington Post, July 10, 1991
Notes:
The word umbraphile is a blend of the Latin terms umbra, "shadow", and -phile, "loving." An umbraphile is also known as an eclipsoid or an eclipsomaniac, and a person who travels to prime eclipse locations is also called an eclipse-chaser. Note, too, that in a comment to the umbraphile entry: http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/umbraphile\#comments in Grant Barrett's Double-Tongued Dictionary, astronomer (and possible coiner of the word) Glenn Schneider writes that he used umbraphile as early as 1976.
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