Enrichment Speaking · Eclipse & Astronomy Sailings

Speaking.

A total solar eclipse gives your guests about one hundred seconds, if the sky allows it. Most of them have never seen one, and most will spend those seconds fumbling with a phone. We have watched that happen for eighteen years, and we wrote the book on how to stop it.

We are a father and son. One holds a master's degree in astronomy and has chased fifteen eclipses since 2008. The other designs and delivers professional training for a living and is the lead author of our handbook. Between us we cover the science and the preparation, in two voices, across a sequence built to peak on the afternoon your voyage was sold on.

15
Eclipses chased since 2008
3
Chased from ship decks
160
Pages, published 2026
3
International press features
Enquire about a sailing See the talks
The Gap

An eclipse voyage is not a lecture slot. It is a course with a practical exam.

The exam is about one hundred seconds long, it happens on one specific afternoon, and every passenger on board sits it.

Most enrichment programming treats the eclipse as a topic — a standalone session, some diagrams, a spectacular video at the end. That approach optimises for the reaction in the room rather than for what a guest can actually do when the light starts to go.

Ours is built as a sequence. Each talk sets up the next, and the fourth lands on the morning itself.

What We Never Do

We don't promise the sky.

Three of our fifteen chases were lost to cloud — Shanghai in 2009, Lake Turkana in 2013, the Faroe Islands in 2015. Texas in 2024 came through a gap and very nearly didn't.

We say so on day one, and we say it deliberately. Guests who understand that this is a genuine gamble are disappointed by the weather if it goes against them. Guests who were promised a spectacle are disappointed by the ship.

Anyone can sell certainty. We would rather sell the chase, which is the truer thing and, when the sky opens, the bigger one.

The Series

Five talks, in sequence.

Each runs 45 minutes plus questions. The eclipse-day briefing runs 30. Three of the five need no eclipse at all and suit general sailings year-round.

1
Early voyage · Both speakers

Why We Chase — Two Generations in the Moon's Shadow

How it started in the Gobi Desert in 2008. A wife who has been on every trip and plans all of them. Three sons drawn in over a decade, and a proposal five minutes after totality ended off Western Australia. The three chases lost to cloud, told straight. Heavy on photographs, closing on video of totality from a ship's deck.

2
Mid-voyage · Koh Joo Beng

Why the Moon Fits the Sun

The science, properly diagrammed. The kinds of eclipse and why they differ. The extraordinary coincidence that the Sun and Moon share an apparent size in this geological era, and why it is temporary. And how eclipse paths are predicted decades in advance — the part almost nobody explains to a general audience.

3
Mid-late · Koh Joo Beng, with Jared

The Ghost in the Machine

Two audiences, served on purpose. For the enthusiasts: cameras, lenses, solar filters, and eighteen years of his own equipment disasters — the filter left on, the bumped focus, the dead batteries. For everyone else: how to get a decent photograph on a phone, how to use eclipse glasses safely, and when to put everything down.

4
Day before, or morning of · Jared

Eclipse Day Briefing

Ship-specific and operational. Where the vessel expects to be, timings in local time, the weather call, sun angle above the horizon, where to stand and where not to, eye safety, and the final sixty seconds. Prepared with your officers, using their numbers. Never improvised.

5
Post-eclipse · Both speakers

Where the Shadow Goes Next

What everyone just saw, or didn't, and where the shadow falls next — Australia on 22 July 2028, and the decade beyond. Guests leave already thinking about the next one.

And One Thing Nobody Else Offers

On Deck — the totality hour.

Almost every enrichment speaker disappears at the exact moment the event happens. They are at their own tripod, having their own eclipse, and the ship is left with a full deck of guests and nobody to help them.

Jared works the deck instead. Roving among passengers with filtered binoculars to pass around, projection and pinhole tricks, and small shared activities that turn several hundred people standing separately into a crowd having one experience together. Joo Beng will be at his camera, which is where he should be.

Guest experience during totality is what the voyage is selling. It is also, on most eclipse sailings, the one thing nobody has staffed.

The Speakers

Two voices, two registers.

Astronomy · Equipment · The Record

Koh Joo Beng, MSc (Astronomy)

Took a Master of Science in astronomy at Swinburne University of Technology in middle age, after a career as a research and development director in electrical engineering. Fifteen eclipse chases since 2008 — the Gobi Desert, Easter Island, the Faroe Islands, Chile, Kenya, Indonesia, Idaho, Western Australia, Texas, and the Atlantic off Spain. His photographs run throughout the handbook. Speaks regularly to school and junior college astronomy societies in Singapore.

Structure · Preparation · Guest Experience

Jared Koh

Lead author of Chasing Totality. Designs and delivers leadership and management development programmes in Singapore's public healthcare sector, and holds an Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment — teaching adults is his profession, not a hobby. Five totalities of his own since 2012, three of them from ship decks: Celebrity Millennium in the South Pacific, P&O Explorer off Western Australia, and Celebrity Apex off La Coruña. Also the author of The Leadership Ladder: Ready to Lead.

Proof

Watch us work.

A full hour with Chris Alexander and Leticia Ferrer on Totality Talks — The Solar Eclipse Podcast, recorded before the 2026 eclipse. The closest thing to sitting in the room.

Totality Talks — Episode 24 — Jared Koh — Chasing Totality
The Straits Times “Total eclipse of the heart: Family channels passion for chasing eclipses around the world into book” Life · 1 August 2026 France 24 “A guide designed to help eclipse chasers identify the best viewing locations within Spain’s path of totality.” Part 1 of 4 · 9 August 2026 · and syndication Condé Nast Traveler “Meet the Umbraphiles Who Chase Eclipses Around the World” August 2026

From the Master of Celebrity Apex. Jared presented on board during the August 2026 Spain and Portugal eclipse sailing, and sent a signed copy of the handbook up to the bridge. The captain wrote back.

“I love your book, it is really wonderful. It is my pleasure to have you on my ship. Wishing you all the best and hope you’re having a nice cruise with us.”

Handwritten Celebrity Cruises card from Captain Michail Karatzas: "Hello Jared & Joo Beng, I love your book, it is really wonderful. It is my pleasure to have you on my ship. Wishing you all the best and hope you're having a nice cruise with us." Captain Michail Karatzas · Celebrity Apex · August 2026
Practical

The details a booker needs.

Format45 minutes plus questions. The eclipse-day briefing runs 30. On Deck runs the length of the event.
RequirementsProjector, HDMI, and a lapel or handheld microphone. We bring our own laptops and clickers.
LanguagesEnglish.
BasedSingapore. Available for Mediterranean, Atlantic, Asia-Pacific and Australian itineraries.
Targeting2 August 2027, Egypt and the Mediterranean — six minutes of totality, the longest until 2114. And 22 July 2028 across Australia.
ConfigurationAvailable as a pair or, where a programme has room for only one speaker, Jared solo on talks 1, 4, 5 and On Deck.
Enquirieshello@chasingtotality.org
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