Sandstone formation Edna's Needle crowned by the totality of the annular eclipse on May 20, 2012. Our party was dazzled by our clear air view of the sun over the desert, and grateful that our first attempt to view a solar eclipse was a success. (Astronomy lore is filled with stories of astronomers being denied the golden moment by weather or fate - one more than a dozen times without ever seeing success.) Edna's Needle is about a half mile from Hope Arch, our intended site of eclipse viewing. However, the beautiful arch is sandwiched by sandstone fins that block the first and last hours of light over the desert so we had to scramble to go to Plan B...Located on the Navajo Reservation west of Chinle, Arizona, Edna's Needle was apparently named for Edna Hope Gregory, the wife of surveyor Herbert Gregory who documented the area about a century ago.