ENNIS, Texas — As you're reading this, people from around the nation and the world are gearing up to trek to Texas to see our total eclipse on April 8.
Off of Old City Lake in Ennis, where totality is expected to last 4 minutes and 23 seconds, the longest in the area, retired physician Dr. Bill Kinzie only has to trek to his backyard.
It's where the 88-year-old's observatory, which has stood there since his home was built in 1973, awaits a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Over the decades, Kinzie has mostly watched the planets, but now, something more significant is coming straight to him.
"Come Monday--I'll start getting ready around 10:30 in the morning. I'll open the observatory and tune in the sun--assuming we have visibility. I'm hoping for a sky like today! We sort of practiced during the previous partial eclipse," Kinzie said.
Kinzie's pleasant and polite demeanor is why patients in Ennis loved him for decades. He's the kind of Texan who makes you smile when you hear him say, "Bless their hearts." His family even gives back to medical students in the North Texas area through scholarships via the Kinzie Foundation.
These truths make it all the more enjoyable to hear a man enjoying retirement talk about one of his favorite passions: astronomy.
"I've seen two or three partial eclipses, but I've never seen a total eclipse. I'm 88, so that's pretty unique," Kinzie said.
Of course, the best way to see the eclipse is just by looking up--but Kinzie has a filter on his telescope that will allow him to start tracking the sun before totality in the afternoon.
That is if Mother Nature cooperates. The forecast for the DFW area for Monday is mostly cloudy, which is the only thing that could rain on our eclipse parade.
"Assuming we have visibility--we'll be able to see the stars and the eclipse too!" Kinzie said. "Even if it's broken clouds--it'll work."
The telescope in Kinzie's observatory has been in his family since 1969. Just three years before that, his love for astronomy was born when his son Scott asked for something to allow him to see the stars.
Scott even helped Kinzie build his observatory.
"It was 1966. When he was 10, we bought a $39 telescope from Sears, and when I tuned it up to the moon, I was just captured by it. This was before the lunar landings. From here, we can see the moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars. The telescope has a four-inch refractor--it's got a lens, not a mirror. It's really just planetary," Kinzie said.
Kinzie plans to have family and friends over, yet someone important will be missing. His son Scott, who sparked his dad's astronomical passion, suddenly died at 63 in October. Kinzie told WFAA he'll think extensively about him when the big day comes.
"I wish he were going to be here," Kinzie said. "I think a lot about him, and I'm just going to enjoy it."
In many ways, both will have a front-row seat.
