I sailed to Greenland for a total solar eclipse — what I saw left me speechless

我航行到格陵兰岛观看日全食——眼前的景象让我震撼得说不出话来

I woke up on the morning of Aug. 12 and looked out of the window to something I hadn't dared hope for: blue sky.

8月12日早上，我醒来，望向窗外，看到了我不敢奢望的东西：蓝天。

After days of scrutinizing weather models that seemed determined to test the nerves of everyone aboard the HX Expeditions ship MS Spitsbergen, somehow, against the odds, the clouds had cleared. Even then, I didn't trust it (especially after my 2024 eclipse experience). We had traveled thousands of miles, crossed the Greenland Sea and ventured deep into Scoresby Sund to put ourselves in the path of the moon's shadow. Now there was nothing to do but wait — and hope the sky stayed clear.

在连续数日仔细研判那些似乎铁了心要考验HX Expeditions邮轮“斯匹次卑尔根号”上每个人神经的天气模型之后，不知怎的，尽管希望渺茫，云层竟然散开了。即便如此，我仍不敢相信（尤其是在经历了2024年那次日食之后）。我们已跋涉数千英里，穿越格陵兰海，深入斯科斯比湾，只为让自己置身于月影经过的路径上。现在，除了等待——并希望天空保持晴朗——别无他法。

The wind howled across the deck, but nobody seemed to mind. If anything, it was helping us, keeping the clouds at bay. The atmosphere aboard felt like Christmas Eve with a ship full of overexcited children. Some guests had chased eclipses across the world; for others, this would be their first. Either way, Aug. 12 was the date we'd been waiting years for.

狂风在甲板上呼啸，但似乎没人在意。要说有什么作用，它反而帮了我们，把云层挡在了远处。船上的气氛就像圣诞前夜，满船都是兴奋过度的孩子。有些客人曾走遍世界追逐日食；对另一些人来说，这将是他们的第一次。无论如何，8月12日就是我们等待多年的那个日子。

But by the time we reached Scoresby Sund, something had shifted.

但当我们到达斯科尔斯比海峡时，情况发生了变化。

I had traveled all this way to look up. Instead, I found myself looking around. I'd come here for 2 minutes and 14 seconds of darkness. Instead, Greenland had spent the previous days relentlessly demanding my full attention.

我千里迢迢来到这里，本是为了抬头仰望。结果，我却发现自己环顾四周。我来这里，是为了那2分14秒的黑暗。然而，在此前的日子里，格陵兰却一直毫不留情地吸引着我全部的注意力。

After a couple of days at sea during the crossing from Svalbard to East Greenland, our first sight of land appeared almost like a mirage on the horizon. Soon, icebergs were drifting past the ship and the scale of the landscape became increasingly difficult to comprehend. We could sail for hours through Northeast Greenland National Park without seeing a single sign of human civilization beyond our own ship. At times, moving through those immense geological landscapes felt less like traveling across Earth and more like exploring some distant, icy-covered moon.

在从斯瓦尔巴群岛横渡到格陵兰东部的海上航行数日后，我们初次望见陆地时，它几乎像是地平线上的海市蜃楼。很快，冰山从船边漂过，这片景观的尺度也变得愈发难以想象。我们可以在东北格陵兰国家公园航行数小时，除了自己的船之外，看不到一丝人类文明的痕迹。有时，穿行于那些广袤的地质景观中，感觉不像是在地球上旅行，而更像是在探索某个遥远的、冰封的月球。

Yet, the more otherworldly Greenland appeared, the more it made me appreciate our own planet.

然而，格陵兰岛看起来越超凡脱俗，就越让我珍视我们自己的星球。

At times it felt as though I'd stepped into a geology textbook. Processes and structures I'd previously seen reduced to diagrams were suddenly towering above me. And amongst all the enormity were the tiniest signs of life: lichens and miniature Arctic plants hugging the ground beneath vast mountains and glaciers.

有时，我感觉自己仿佛走进了一本地质学教科书。那些我过去只能在示意图中看到的进程和构造，突然高耸在我面前。而在这一切宏大之中，还有最微小的生命迹象：地衣和微小的北极植物，紧贴着地面，生长在巨大的山脉和冰川之下。

The scale and contrast were overwhelming at times, and no view stayed the same for long.

规模和对比度有时是压倒性的，没有一个景色会长时间保持不变。

An iceberg viewed from one side could morph into a completely different form as the ship sailed past it. A break in the clouds could transform a gray mountainside in seconds. In Scoresby Sund, even the ice seemed to echo the landscape around it as jagged peaks, flat-topped slabs and sculpted ridges rose from the water like miniature versions of the colossal mountains behind them.

一座冰山，从一侧望去是一种模样，随着船从旁驶过，它可能变幻成完全不同的形态。云层一裂开，就能在几秒内改变一片灰色山坡的面貌。在斯科斯比湾，就连冰似乎也在呼应周围的景观：参差不齐的峰尖、平顶的板块和雕凿般的山脊从水中升起，宛如身后那些巨大山脉的微缩版。

The Greenland scenery was a gift that kept on giving, and I found myself increasingly reluctant to go inside. I began meticulously scanning for wildlife, because I'd learned how quickly something extraordinary could appear.

格陵兰的景色是一份不断带来惊喜的馈赠，我发现自己越来越不情愿回到舱内。我开始一丝不苟地搜寻野生动物，因为我已经体会到，非凡之物可能转瞬之间就会出现。

On an impromptu evening walk in Longyearbyen before we set sail, beluga whales had suddenly surfaced in the bay. Later, in Greenland, while I was distracted by a spectacular circumzenithal arc and sundogs overhead, one of a handful of people still standing on deck spotted two tiny white shapes in the water. I thought they were birds bobbing along.

在我们启航前，于朗伊尔城一次即兴的傍晚散步中，白鲸突然在海湾里浮出水面。后来在格陵兰，当我被头顶壮观的环天顶弧和幻日吸引住时，甲板上仍在驻足的少数人之一发现水中有两个微小的白色身影。我还以为它们是随波起伏的鸟。

Then I lifted my camera and zoomed in.

然后我举起相机放大。

Polar bears.

北极熊。

It became something of a lesson for the expedition: stay curious, keep your eyes open and remember to look both up and down.

这成了探险队的一个教训：保持好奇心，睁大眼睛，记得上下看。

That curiosity seemed to unite everyone aboard. Guests had traveled from around the world for this eclipse opportunity. There were seasoned eclipse chasers looking to experience totality somewhere extraordinary, first-timers who had no idea how they would react and people drawn as much by the adventure and wildlife, as the eclipse itself.

那份好奇心似乎把船上的每个人凝聚在了一起。客人们从世界各地赶来，只为抓住这次日食的机会。其中有经验丰富的日食追逐者，想在某个非凡之地体验全食；有初次观赏者，完全不知道自己会有怎样的反应；也有人被这场冒险和野生动物吸引的程度，丝毫不亚于日食本身。

HX Expeditions' onboard science and education programme gave that shared enthusiasm somewhere to go. Our days were filled with nature landings, lectures, citizen-science projects and conversations with experts, helping us do more than simply travel through Greenland. The programme encouraged us to pay closer attention — not merely to see the landscape, but to understand and truly experience it.

HX Expeditions 的船上科学和教育计划让这种共同的热情有所发展。我们的日子充满了自然着陆、讲座、公民科学项目和与专家的对话，帮助我们做的不仅仅是简单地穿越格陵兰岛。这个节目鼓励我们更加密切地关注——不仅仅是看风景，而是理解和真正体验它。

Conversations jumped from eclipses to wildlife, travel, geology and perhaps, inevitably for a ship full of skywatchers, clouds. We took part in the GLOBE Observer cloud citizen science project and found ourselves happily studying them — while collectively hoping they would be nowhere near the sun on eclipse day.

话题从日食跳到野生动物、旅行、地质，或许还不可避免地——对于一船观天者来说——跳到了云。我们参加了GLOBE Observer云观测公民科学项目，发现自己乐在其中地研究着云——同时集体盼望着日食那天太阳附近一片云都没有。

The eclipse had brought us together, but the journey had quickly become about much more.

日食让我们走到了一起，但旅程很快就变成了更多。

Then, on Aug. 12, our attention returned to the sky.

然后，在8月12日，我们的注意力又回到了天空。

When the moon took its first tiny bite from the solar disk, excitement rippled across the deck. For the next hour, it steadily consumed more of the sun.

当月亮从太阳圆盘上咬下第一口时，兴奋在甲板上荡漾。在接下来的一个小时里，它稳步消耗了更多的阳光。

As totality approached, the quality of the light began to change.

随着全食的临近，光的质量开始发生变化。

It became strangely yellow and dull, yet at the same time the landscape seemed almost unnaturally sharp. It was eerie — familiar enough to still resemble daylight, but wrong enough that your brain knew something extraordinary was happening.

天色变得奇怪地发黄、暗淡，但与此同时，景物却显得几乎不自然地清晰锐利。那种感觉诡异极了——熟悉得仍像白昼，却又不对劲得足以让你的大脑意识到，某种非凡之事正在发生。

What amazed me most was how long that daylight persisted.

最让我惊讶的是白天持续了多久。

Even when only the tiniest sliver of sun remained, Greenland was still illuminated. I knew scientifically how intensely bright the solar photosphere is, but knowing it and watching that minuscule fraction of sunlight continue to illuminate an entire landscape were two very different things.

即便太阳只剩下最细小的一弯，格陵兰依然被照亮。我从科学上知道太阳光球层有多么明亮耀眼，但“知道”这一点，和亲眼看着那一小部分阳光继续照亮整片大地，完全是两回事。

Then the final fraction disappeared.

然后最后一部分消失了。

The world around me plunged into twilight.

我周围的世界陷入了暮色。

And there it was.

它就在那里。

Totality.

全部。

I knew exactly what I was supposed to see. I've written about eclipses for years. I understand the science. I had seen thousands of photographs of the corona, prominences, Baily's beads and diamond rings.

我完全知道自己应该看到什么。我写日食报道已有多年，也理解其中的科学原理。我看过成千上万张日冕、日珥、贝利珠和钻石环的照片。

None of it prepared me for the feeling of actually seeing one.

这一切都没有让我准备好真正看到一个人的感觉。

The first thing that struck me was how large the eclipsed sun appeared to the naked eye. Photographs had never prepared me for that sense of scale, nor how much detail I could see with my own eyes.

首先让我印象深刻的是肉眼看到的日食有多大。照片从未让我对那种尺度感有所准备，也从未让我准备好去体会，我竟能用肉眼看到如此多的细节。

The moon itself looked impossibly dark — a black void punched into the sky — surrounded by the pearly white corona. Long streamers stretched away from the sun and around the moon's edge I could see bright pink prominences.

月亮本身看起来黑得不可思议——像天空中凿出的一个黑色虚空——被珍珠白色的日冕环绕。长长的日冕流从太阳向外延伸，而在月亮边缘周围，我能看到亮粉色的日珥。

I was so surprised to see this vivid pink color with my own eyes. For 2 minutes and 14 seconds, I saw the sun as I had never seen it before.

我很惊讶亲眼看到这种鲜艳的粉红色。在2分14秒的时间里，我看到了我从未见过的太阳。

But even then, I couldn't just look up.

但即使这样，我也不能只是抬起头来。

I looked around. Jupiter and Mercury shone clearly off to one side of the eclipsed sun, with Mercury far brighter and easier to spot than I had expected. Venus blazed on the other side.

我环顾四周。木星和水星清晰地照耀在日食的一侧，水星比我想象的要明亮得多，也更容易被发现。金星在另一边闪耀。

Then I looked down. Below the eclipsed sun were icebergs. Beside us rose the immense walls of Scoresby Sund. Glaciers carved their path through the landscape.

然后我低头看了看。日食下方是冰山。我们旁边耸立着斯科尔斯比海峡的巨大城墙。冰川在这片土地上开辟了一条小路。

Above it all hung that black disk and its enormous, delicate corona. My brain simply couldn't take it all in.

在那一切之上，悬挂着那个黑色圆盘和它巨大而精致的日冕。我的大脑根本无法将这一切尽数吸收。

There was too much beauty. Too much scale. Too much happening at once.

有太多的美丽。规模太大。一次发生的事情太多了。

People use words such as "mind-blowing" and "speechless" so often that they begin to lose their meaning.

人们经常使用“令人兴奋”和“无言以对”这样的词，以至于它们开始失去本来的意义。

But my mind was really blown. And I really was speechless. Perhaps the best way I can describe it is that my mind felt full, but quiet. Full because there was almost too much to comprehend, but quiet because for those fleeting moments, there was room for nothing else.

但我真的大吃一惊。我真的无语了。也许我能描述的最好方式是，我的头脑感到充实，但很安静。充实是因为几乎有太多东西需要理解，但安静是因为对于那些转瞬即逝的时刻，没有空间容纳其他任何东西。

The intensity of the experience surprised guests who had originally joined the voyage for different reasons.

这种体验的强度让最初出于不同原因参加航行的客人感到惊讶。

"My husband and I came to see the wildlife, and we were actually in awe of what we saw in relation to the solar eclipse," Kenya Haupt, from Colorado, told Space.com. "Truly an emotional experience"

来自科罗拉多州的肯尼亚·豪普特 (Kenya Haupt) 告诉 Space.com：“我和我丈夫来看野生动物，我们实际上对我们所看到的与日食有关的景象感到敬畏。”“真正的情感体验”

The reasons for joining the expedition varied, but beneath the moon’s shadow, the experience became a collective one.

参加探险的原因各不相同，但在月亮的阴影下，这次经历变成了一次集体经历。

For Shubhada Maitra, from India, it was her first total solar eclipse.

对于来自印度的Shubhada Maitra来说，这是她第一次看到日全食。

"When I looked around me, I just had a feeling that we were one community, taking part in one of the most spectacular, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime celestial events," Maitra said. "Although we came from different countries, different nationalities, genders, all of that, that solar eclipse just bound us together."

迈特拉说：“当我环顾四周时，我只有一种感觉：我们是一个共同体，正在共同参与一场最壮观的、也许一生仅有一次的天文事件。尽管我们来自不同的国家，有着不同的国籍、性别，诸如此类，但那场日食把我们紧紧联结在了一起。”

"Without saying anything, we were just so connected in that experience."

“什么话都没说，我们就在那段经历中如此紧密地联结在一起。”

Lisa Marie Morse, from Rhode Island, described the eclipse as both "joyous and melancholy."

来自罗德岛的丽莎·玛丽·莫尔斯形容这次日食既“欢乐又忧郁”。

"In that moment of darkness, I felt a powerful connection with all living things, to an infinite ancient rhythm locking us together for 134 seconds of shared awareness, then releasing us back into our daily slumber," Morse said. "It was magical."

莫尔斯说：“在那个黑暗的时刻，我感受到了与所有生物的强大联系，一种无限古老的节奏，将我们锁在一起 134 秒的共享意识，然后让我们回到日常睡眠中。”“太神奇了。”

Then, almost as quickly as totality had arrived, it was ending.

然后，几乎和全食到来一样快，它就结束了。

The first brilliant beads of sunlight appeared from behind the moon.

第一颗灿烂的阳光从月亮后面出现。

They were beautiful, but there was a sadness in seeing them too. The corona, prominences and extraordinary black void that had dominated the sky were about to disappear once more into the overwhelming glare of the sun.

它们很美，但看到它们时也带着一丝伤感。曾主宰天空的日冕、日珥和那非凡的黑色虚空，即将再次消失于太阳令人目眩的强光之中。

Two minutes and 14 seconds had somehow felt both packed with experience and impossibly brief. I had just enough time to look with my naked eye, search for planets, check it out through binoculars and try to absorb the reactions around me.

不知何故，2分14秒既充满了经验，又短暂得令人难以置信。我刚好有足够的时间用肉眼观看、寻找行星、透过双筒望远镜观察，并试着感受周围人的反应。

Then it was gone.

然后就没了。

For seasoned eclipse chaser Roy Tillcock from the Isle of Wight, the clear view had come as a genuine surprise.

对于来自怀特岛的经验丰富的日食追逐者罗伊·蒂尔科克来说，能如此清晰地看到日食，着实令他大感意外。

"This was one of the most unexpected eclipses I've seen," he said. "I did not have high hopes of seeing it, and there it was. Brilliant."

“这是我见过的最意想不到的日食之一，”他说。“我并没有抱太大希望看到它，但它确实出现了。太棒了。”

And, as if to underline just how fortunate we had been, the clouds rolled in shortly after totality. A few minutes later, and this could have been a very different story.

而且，似乎是为了强调我们是多么幸运，全食过后不久乌云密布。几分钟后，这可能是一个非常不同的故事。

Some skywatchers were emotional. Others were exhilarated. Many, like me, seemed to be struggling to find words big enough for what had happened.

有些观天者情绪激动，有些人兴奋不已。还有许多人，像我一样，似乎都在努力寻找足够宏大的语言，来描述刚刚发生的一切。

Perhaps that is part of why eclipse chasing becomes so addictive. We can explain the science of totality in extraordinary detail. We can calculate the path of the moon's shadow years in advance, travel thousands of miles to stand beneath it and know exactly when and where darkness will fall.

也许这正是追逐日食如此令人上瘾的部分原因。我们能够极其详尽地解释日全食的科学原理。我们可以提前数年计算月影的路径，跋涉数千英里站在其下，并确切知道黑暗将在何时、何地降临。

But knowing what to expect is not the same as experiencing it.

但是知道会发生什么并不等同于经历它。

The following morning, Greenland was still there, still demanding my undivided attention. Icebergs drifted past the ship. Mountains towered above the fjord. The sunlight shifted and the landscape transformed once again. I had traveled all this way to look up.

第二天早上，格陵兰仍然在那里，仍然需要我全神贯注。冰山从船上飘过。群山耸立在峡湾之上。阳光转换，景观再次改变。我千里迢迢来到这里寻找。

But somewhere along the journey, I had learned to truly look around. Here I was, standing on a planet of glaciers, oceans, wildlife and ancient rock, watching its moon pass perfectly across its star at a moment in Earth's history when their apparent size in our sky happened to match. How lucky are we to experience any of this? Luck, ultimately, is something no eclipse chaser can ignore.

但在这段旅程中的某个时刻，我学会了真正去环顾四周。此刻的我，正站在一颗遍布冰川、海洋、野生动物和古老岩石的星球上，看着它的卫星在地球历史上的某一刻完美地从它的恒星前方经过——而在那一刻，它们在我们天空中的视觉大小恰好相当。我们能经历这一切，是何等幸运？归根结底，运气，是任何日食追逐者都无法忽视的东西。

We could calculate where the shadow would fall. We could sail into its path. We could scrutinize forecasts, prepare our equipment and position ourselves as carefully as possible.

我们可以计算出月影将落在何处。我们可以航行进入它的路径。我们可以仔细研判预报，准备好设备，并尽可能小心地让自己就位。

But we couldn't command the clouds to cooperate.

但我们无法命令云配合。

Nature always has the final say. And on Aug. 12, 2026, in a remote fjord in East Greenland, nature said yes.

大自然始终拥有最终决定权。而在2026年8月12日，在格陵兰东部一处偏远的峡湾，大自然答应了。

Editor's note: This trip was made possible by travel and accommodation provided by HX Expeditions.

编者注：本次行程得以成行，得益于HX Expeditions提供的旅行和住宿支持。