Totally Obsessed : ‘Eclipse chasers’ will go anywhere at any time and spend whatever it takes to see the moon knock the lights out of the sun.

They burn their discretionary income--and vacation time--following the sun, then meticulously keep score of their minutes and seconds accumulated in the “moon shadow” or “totality.”

Their rotational paths cross like clockwork in the most extraordinary of outposts. If it’s June 30, 1973, it must be Akjoujt, Mauritania. Nov. 22, 1984: New Caledonia. July 22, 1990: Helsinki, Finland.

They are “eclipse chasers”--mildly eccentric, unabashedly fanatic, lunar cyclists who circle the globe to experience one of nature’s grandest magic tricks.

Of course, they will be among the multitudes due to descend on Hawaii and Baja California July 11. Folks who would spend thousands of dollars to fly over the mid-Pacific for a 15-second solar blackout certainly would not miss a 6 1/2-minute eclipse in their own back yards.

This will be a stellar eclipse, an eclipse to eclipse all others. While a total eclipse--in which the moon and the sun perfectly align--occurs every year or two, rarely is the phenomenon so convenient for Americans. And only once in a blue moon does one last much longer than a couple of minutes.

Devotees can expect to spot familiar faces in the crowd. “You go to these oddball places, and the same characters show up,” said nine-timer Joel Harris of Burbank. “On Bangka Island in Indonesia, you see people you saw in western Africa.”

“For hard-nosed eclipse followers, it’s a small world,” said Costa Mesa engineer Jeff Sloan, 37, who has chased two eclipses. “I ran into an East Coast couple in Java I’d met three years before in Kenya.”

To witness the moon knock the lights out of its gigantic superior is to hanker for a return engagement. “My first eclipse was the most special experience of my life,” said Stephanie Mood, 46, a San Diego English teacher who has seen three. “I don’t know what could equal it--except for other eclipses.”

“As soon as totality is over, everyone is thinking of their next fix,” said Sloan. “It’s very easy to become an eclipse junkie.”

Indeed, eclipse followers share a compulsion--one that they term “umbra addiction,” referring to the shadow cast by the moon as it passes between the Earth and sun. While their particular habit is harmless to their health, it can wreak havoc on their savings accounts.

“It’s a benevolent form of addiction, but of all the conventional addictions--food, drugs, cigarettes--it can be the most expensive,” said Harris, 41. “People spend five grand to watch the sky get dark for three minutes.”

Harris devised an expedient method of supporting his two-decade habit: He turned it into a business. Four years ago, the former public relations officer opened Twilight Tours, a travel agency that specializes in astronomy-related excursions.

For the upcoming sky show--which will pale by comparison as a partial eclipse here in Southern California--Harris has booked 530 sightseers. More than 50,000 visitors are expected to flock to Baja, and another 50,000 to Hawaii--the best spots to watch. Hotels in both areas have had the “no vacancy” sign out for months.

Umbra addicts must carve their budgets and vacation time around the next “fix.” Stalking eclipses in distant corners of the Earth requires frugality at home.

“The thing we sacrifice the most is rock concerts,” said San Diegan John Mood, 58, a free-lance writer who journeys to eclipses with his wife, Stephanie. “We’re not very well-to-do, so we can’t go to all of the eclipses we’d like to.”

“I don’t buy the latest stereo equipment, and I drive an old car,” Sloan offered.

Roger Cotton, 52, a systems analyst in Anaheim, believes that “it’s a matter of priorities.”

“My friends who are married and have kids can’t understand why I spend so much money on this,” said Cotton, 52, who has been to eclipses in the Philippines and Finland. “Well, instead of driving a Mercedes, I drive a VW. But I personally don’t consider that a sacrifice.”

Some die-hard fans approach eclipse chasing as a competitive sport. They even wear their totality stats like numbers on a football jersey.

“You see people proudly announcing with T-shirts, ‘I’ve been in the moon shadow for 30 minutes,’ or whatever,” said Stephen Edberg, 38, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and a seven-eclipse veteran.

So the sun disappears for a few minutes, the uninitiated might scoff. What’s the big deal?

That is exactly the question Jackie Kreitzman asked before a friend talked her into accompanying him to the eclipse in Indonesia eight years ago.

“I didn’t understand what the fuss was about,” said the Encino speech pathologist. “But afterward, I dreamt about it for weeks--that’s how powerful it was. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the sun’s prominences shooting out (from behind the moon).

“It was one of those magic moments that is so immense, everything around you seems to stop,” Kreitzman, 37, added. “And it’s a sensual experience--not just a visual experience. You feel the temperature drop, you feel the breeze, you hear the people around you screaming, you see the shadow approaching.”

Viewing an eclipse, said Harris, “is the closest thing to experiencing what it’s like on an alien planet that you could have. The landscape and the sky and everything around you is transformed into something so unearthly that it’s indescribable.

“There’s a black hole in the sky with a pearly ring around it,” he said. “You see the winter stars (during a summertime eclipse, when they normally are obscured by daylight). The animals act funny because they think it’s night, and then the roosters crow when the sun comes back out.”

Henry and Shirley Maag of Westminster were so enthralled by their three eclipse encounters that they are treating their six children, three children-in-law and a grandchild to the Baja spectacle.

“On our other trips, we always said, ‘Oh, we wish the children could see this’--so now they’re going to,” said Shirley Maag, who, with her husband, owns a shopping center in Lomita.

An eclipse “is so overwhelming that you almost feel like falling on your knees and praying,” she said.

Like Maag, many eclipse disciples remember the natural wonder as a spiritual awakening.

James D’Alessio, 45, a hair stylist in Santa Monica, ventured to say that his first contact with an eclipse forever changed his life. He was on a cruise ship off the coast of Mexico in 1977 when the shadow of the moon overcame him.

“I was filled with incredible energy--I danced all over the deck like someone possessed,” D’Alessio recalled. “I thought it would go away once I returned home, but it never did--this feeling of energy and fearlessness in the face of anything. I was never the same again.”

D’Alessio even attributes his ensuing divorce to that “consciousness-expanding experience.”

“Suddenly, I could see the relationship for what it was, and I didn’t like what I saw,” he said.

As a rule, eclipses are not home-wreckers. However, they can lead to minor disagreements if one spouse is less of a devotee than the other. “My wife says, ‘Let’s not plan every vacation around astronomical events,”’ admitted Edberg.

But surrendering your travel itinerary to the punctual whims of celestial bodies is half the fun of eclipse chasing, umbra addicts say.

“If not for the eclipse, I doubt we ever would have gone to Indonesia,” said Stephanie Mood. “And I can’t tell you how special of a place that is.”

Carter Roberts, 44, who boasts a record of nine eclipses, recommended that fellow followers aim for destinations they would enjoy with or without the main attraction. “My philosophy is to go on trips that would be good even if the eclipse gets clouded out,” said the Berkeley geophysicist. “You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak.”

Still, the most exotic locale on Earth could not compensate for the awe-inspiring moment of totality that beckons eclipse lovers like pilgrims to Mecca.

Jackie Holmes, 55, a high school secretary in Riverside, sums up the phenomenon: “It’s all of the good things you’ve ever had in life--weddings, babies, exciting ballgames--wrapped in one wonderful emotion.”