LaVerne Biser and his late wife Marion saw their first solar eclipse together on July 20, 1963.
Now, Monday’s total solar eclipse marks Biser’s 13th time watching the moon completely blot out the sun.
Some may think if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, but not the 105-year-old Bison.
‘You see one, you want to see them all,’ he said.
After that first eclipse, the Bisers were hooked. They began chasing eclipses.
LaVerne Biser will see his 13th solar eclipse on Monday. A lifelong eclipse chaser, this one has arrived at his front door.
LaVerne and Marion Biser viewed this total solar eclipse in February 26, 1979 – just one of a dozen they saw together.
They planned their vacations to correspond with eclipses around the country and the world.
In all, they viewed 12 of the celestial events together.
The couple was married for 78 years, before Marion’s death last year.
‘I miss her a lot,’ he told Texas ABC affiliate WFAA. ‘ We were always together. She saw all of them, too.’
Biser, who grew up in Ohio, now lives in North Texas.
For the lifelong eclipse chaser, this is the first time the eclipse has come to him.
105-year-old LaVerne Biser saw a dozen eclipses with his late wife Marion, who died last year. This will be the first one he sees without her.
LaVerne Biser’s photos of eclipses decorate his home. This set is from a lunar eclipse on January 31, 2018.
READ MORE: Solar eclipse path of totality could shift
Roughly 34 million people are expected to view the eclipse, but hundreds of thousands of viewers will now be left outside the immediate path and unable to watch the event.
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The total solar eclipse’s path of totality will pass over North Texas, and Biser plans to view it in Plano with his daughter and her family.
It will be his first time seeing an eclipse without Marion.
‘You’d be sorry that she wasn’t there with you,’ he said. ‘Enjoy the moment … that’s it. Enjoy the moment. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.’
Biser and his late wife had four children, and a lifetime of celestial memories together.
His home is full of his woodworking projects, including not only the bed they shared, but also woodcrafts that show off his love of astronomy.
An amateur astronomer and a professional mechanical engineer, Biser also built telescopes, which still decorate his home.
Commemorating a lifetime of eclipses shared with his wife, Biser’s home is adorned with photographic memories of eclipses they saw, meticulously labeled and documented.
LaVerne Biser was a mechanical engineer by profession, and a woodworker by hobby. His home is still filled with telescopes he built.
‘All my life I’ve been building things,’ said LaVerne Biser, who showed how to make a simple solar eclipse viewer.
LaVerne Biser explained a simple way to view the eclipse at home, without special glasses: Poke a hole in a paper plate, and let its shadow fall upon another. ‘That’s not just a point of light, that’s a picture of the sun,’ he said.
Ever the engineer, he also explained a simple way to view the eclipse at home, without special glasses:
Poke a hole in a paper plate, and let its shadow fall upon another.
‘That’s not just a point of light, that’s a picture of the sun,’ he said.
When the moon crosses the sun, its shadow is displayed in that point of light.
A total solar eclipse will not fall upon North Texas for another 300 years, so it’s safe to say this one is the only one Biser will view from his town.
But the elderly engineer has no regrets, and he attributed his long life to avoiding liquor, drugs, and smoking.
‘A beautiful, caring wife too,’ he added. ‘That helps.’
