As many of you know, I’ve taken a hiatus from WUWT for almost two months, and I offer my humble thanks to the many people that contributed of themselves to allow that to happen. I’ll be back at the helm soon, but for now, I wanted to share this video. Charles the Moderator (CTM) joined me in the desert wilderness of Eastern Oregon to experience the eclipse together….and we did. We set posts to publish ahead, and left the grid…it was the first time since the mid 90’s that I’ve been without Internet access for 3 days straight.
I prepped for months. Three cameras. Tracking mount. There’s no way to practice for this, all you can do is make best guesses. One of my guesses turned out OK. Not perfect, but I’ll fix it in post.
As for the total eclipse, it was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had – an intersection of science, technology, photography, art, and history. Literally, it was jaw dropping as I stood there gazing at the corona in awe. I saw the annular eclipse in 2012 – this was orders of magnitude beyond that experience. Here are some stills from the video.
And, at the end of the day, driving back on Highway 395, the sun gave us a second show, complete with crepuscular rays.
The place we were at, Deep Creek Campground in Ochoco National Forest, was not crowded at all. In fact, we avoided all the traffic, the gas lines, and the crowds. We were by ourselves – blissful solitude.
All for now. I’m zorched.
P.S. I apologize for leaving you all stuck with NASA TV while we were gone. I hear it was even worse than you’d expect…talking heads, inanity, small split screens….
UPDATE: Here’s another photo taken with a different camera (Nikon D1500 D7500). The exposure is reduced, and you can see prominences on the edge of the sun….these are magnetic field lines that are causing hot gas eruptions from the sun’s photosphere. Click to enlarge.
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Thanks for this! Indeed – what can compare to a total eclipse? Definitely the most stunning and awe-inspiring experience I have ever had. I’ve seen partials before, but never a total eclipse… this one yesterday (we were in Missouri east of KC about 1.5 hrs) left me utterly without words.
I was in the Lawson area, and the clouds broke long enough to allow us to see the partial leading up to, and the total phase of the eclipse. for me it was all the most spectacular event I have ever witnessed. Even my wife, who was “just tagging along” with her geek husband was impressed. Well worth all the planning and traveling. I can’t wait until 2024!
Thanks, sounds much more fun that the screaming college kids waving banners on NASA coverage. I was disappointed to find out you were not streaming your own stuff, That was the impression I got from the announcement.
Hopefully in the near future we will have a round up of some real scientific measurement that were done. I’d be interested in looking at the phase lag in air temps and downward IR during totality. I know John Christy was doing some measurements, but he did not say what.
I looked into it…there was just no way short of renting a satellite uplink, and despite claims of “big oil funding” it was way outside of my budget.
See you in texas in 2024?
If I’m still on the planet, yes.
Just glad to hear from you, Anthony and glad you’re enjoying yourself.
I was seeing the eclipse just around 50 miles north of you and Charlie! It was about 96% covered for me in my front yard in Kennewick,using a hand held Mylar filter the size of a playing card.
This was my third Solar eclipse,the first one one was Total on February 26,1979,in Kennewick. Have two very large photos I got from a friend,in nice frames.. The second one was in the early 1990’s using a 11″ F 10 Celestron Telescope with a Full Mylar mask on the front end,the view was great! Shared with a lot of people that day next to the Columbia River.
I will be 64 in 2024,maybe see it once more?
I was one of those disappointed people. BUT – hearing that you and Charles actually got a real three days off from the world – I do not begrudge. (Envy, yes…)
Cycled back and forth between outdoor pinhole camera observations (Boulder Colorado at 93%) and NASA “coverage”
NASA stuff was awful – – – they seemed more intent on showing how multicultural, polygender they are, and how many times they could use the words “awesome” and “cosmic”. Most of the talking heads sounded like kindergarten teachers. Seriously.
Watched the feeds from eastern Oregon, Casper Wyoming, Carbondale Illinois, and South Carolina and it was a parade of similar talking heads.
They showed repeated views of the solar disc, “diamond rings”, and a bit of the corona, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of what the landscape looked like in totality at the various locales. Cripes!! Split-screen technology ain’t that difficult (even for NASA rocket scientists) and it would have been so cool to see the sun-moon dance simultaneous with a landscape view side-by-side
Time to significantly downsize the agency and limit their mission to unmanned solar system/space exploration.
I wonder why NASA didn’t hire Al Gore as commentator, just to cap it all off.
NASA raw feed was better than local overcast.
“Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle can look just like a diamond ring”
Far From Me, John Prine
maybe somebody here took some interesting landscape photos, realizing that everybody else would be trying to flood the data pipes with the common article.
i didn’t have enuff of an eclipse to matter with the cloudy day, so i got nothin but a stupid rainbow around where the sun is hiding. boring.
I tried to capture the tree line illuminated by darkening into totality but screwed it up. As totality approached, I realized a time lapse or video of the changing appearance of the landscape was far more interesting photographically than as you say, “the common article”. Maybe in 6.5 years I’ll get it right.
Awesome.
Very nice, and glad you had a most excellent vacation!
I saw the eclipse with my wife Celeste and everything went as planned. We had to drive and camp to get to the totality. We were able to set up our little observatory on a spot out on the wildlife refuge in Nebraska and let it happen. The weather played with us a bit in the morning but we decided to stay put and it payed off!!! This was an amazing experience!!! So much goes through your mind especially since we had read and heard things about experiencing a total eclipse. In the end you just look up and all you can think is WOW, just WOW!! I am absolutely planning on getting to the next one in the US in seven years.
My wife said, It’s too dark and I can’t see anything!”
Just kidding.
Excellent photos, Anthony. I got some good ones in South Carolina I’m happy with them, but yours are really great. very lucky to have clear skies in SC, there was a big thunderstorm a dozen miles to the south and it was a close-run thing.
My first total and I agree- “jaw-dropping.”
The way back from the Mississippi River overlook at Illinois’ Fort Kaskaskia Historical site up I55 was not pleasant. Yes Virginia it did cause a traffic jam.
Here’s a video of the crowd reaction YouTube
Try this LINK
not my cup of tea, it’s ok at a game of football, but not sort of thing for an event to be experienced once or twice in the lifetime.
I saw the one that went up the East Coast in 1970 and it was the same then, clapping & hollering etc. We were on the beach at Virginia Beach and there were some university professors who brought their astronomy classes there so it wasn’t a bunch of yahoos. By the way mission control shouts and hollers when one of the their rovers sends back the first message from Mars or Titan etc.
Number three for us is in seven years – if I’m still here (-:
see my comment : August 22, 2017 at 2:11 pm
WOW! Most concise, best work…I’ve seen on the event. Reminds me of the book I’m reading, “The Boys in the Boat”. About the 1936 Olympic rowing champs (U of Washington State) in Germany. Literally YEARS of training to accomplish a WIN in less than 10 minutes. The parallel, as Anthony noted: MONTHS OF PREP for 5 minutes of action. BUT that action turns out A WINNER!
To clarify, that was the U of Washington, not Washington State. They are two different institutions, as football fans are well aware. The word “State” in MH’s post above was meant to clarify that the U of Washington is in Washington State (in Seattle), not in Washington DC.
As a football fan, I’ve seen WSU score 30 points or more against USC on several occasions. WSU is in a tough conference and has pulled off some great wins. Wait ’til next year…
Excellent book. Next, if possible, read “The Three Year Swim Club”.
Very similar theme, at the same point in history..
My house is 2 miles outside the zone of totality. I drove 25 minutes to a nice spot, no traffic or crowds, where I had 63 seconds of totality. I figured that getting 32% of the duration for 2% of the effort was a reasonable trade. It was truly amazing. As a student in early 1970, I made the pilgrimage to southern Georgia. Alas, it was cloudy. Got lucky this time, with the local clouds clearing with a couple of minutes to spare. I was recording NASA TV, thinking to catch a replay. I lasted 15 minutes before giving up on the drivel.
We had an eclipse in the UK a couple of years ago which was not quite total but near enough and there was one here a couple of decades ago as well
I was present for both and with five minutes to go there was a lot of cloud but then as the eclipse countdown started the skies cleared enough to get a very good view.
I wonder if there is any relationship between the suns activity during an eclipse and clouds?
Tonyb
Perhaps some sort of focusing effect of the moon on the corona?
“I wonder if there is any relationship between the suns activity during an eclipse and clouds?”
Roy Spencer said the same thing happened to him. There were clouds right before the eclipse and then they all just cleared up and he got a perfect view. He has a discussion about it over on his website.
I’ve read many accounts of clouds breaking just enough to give people a good view for several eclipses. Of course, I wouldn’t expect too many comments like “It stayed cloudy.”
I’m sure the hour and a half of reduced solar heating before totality clears out convective clouds like cumulus, even thunderstorms. I doubt it would have much effect on high clouds like cirrus.
Mid-level alto stuff, I’m not sure.
Great stuff guys, thanks for sharing A&C
Up in Canada 1 hour from the border, I witnessed an 86% coverage of the sun. I wasn’t willing to go over the border in to the mad-house. lol. Even still, reported temperature for our area was 19 Celsius and dropped to 17 Celsius during the eclipse. My co-workers and I used a 1/4″ thick piece of black acrylic and sunglasses to view it. Was cool. Although, I wish I had been where the real action was 🙂 Thanks for the video!
Somewhat similar as I’m in Western Canada ( Saskatchewan) and I used a piece of tinted acrylic to take a picture with my phone. Sunlight was utterly dominant but somehow I got two small sister images to lower left and right of the sun that very clearly show the coverage of the sun’s disc.
So I’m happy! It would be nice to see totality but too long a drive.
I viewed it in Michigan using a box with a hole in one side and my head in the box, then as clouds passed by I could look directly at the sun when the clouds were right and that was neat, it was about 10 percent but quite dramatic, weird to see it.
Next time use the box to project the sun on the far side through the keyhole. And use a CD to look through at the sun. It has just enough opacity. Any music on it will do, even none at all, but I recommend Bach.
DON’T look at the sun, also not through a keyhole.
I’ve read that an eclipse can also be viewed through welder’s glasses or helmet.
True. A welding hood with a number 8 or ten filter in it works well. Good for photography too if you make a little rack to hold them both in their proper places. Just be sure to use a fresh one so you don’t have spatter messing up your view.
I recommend the opening of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.
CCR’s Bad Moon Rising.
@Michael – WHAT?! Dark Side of the Moon, sir.
Was the corona still too bright for photography to capture nearby stars as well?
That’s where the “you can’t practice for this” part comes in.
Nope. I got one from the Oregon State Fairgrounds with my Cannon Powershot 30is and ND 2400 filter. To the lower left is a star. I forgot to check which it was. Check it out here: https://goo.gl/photos/x2b8hKAQSWajGUBn7
Here is one of my shots from Stayton, Oregon – right in the center of Totality with great weather and no big crowd where I was.
I got Regulus, pretty close to the Sun, with at 1-second exposure during totality. Picked up a very dim Mercury too.
Martin, I have seen a few shots of this eclipse that show the bright star Regulus and one or two others near the sun. It can be done. Just be prepared to vary your exposures a lot so that you can pick up the faint outer corona and any stars in the field.
Beauty!
Thank you Anthony and Charles.
Flew to Nashville for the day and got lucky … clouds on and off during the partial but cleared off just in time for totality. Such an experience, nothing to compare it to. People around us at the Hermitage (close to airport and lots of open fields) all very nice and bonded by sharing the wonder …including a couple on the blanket next to us who’d come from the UK. Invested in a pair of solar binoculars which were cool but too dark for viewing the corona during totality. Definitely worth the trip, hope I’m here for the Texas eclipse in seven years!
Good for you .. a much deserved celestial event trip.
Totality is fantastic. Been to Turkey and Romania to witness in the past. Once clear, once cloudy, but both great trips.
Near Denver, with 92% coverage, my wife and I enjoyed watching the crescent-shaped leaf shadows on the patio. Focused light outlined our locust and maple tree leaves with fine detail.
I’m guessing that ophthalmologists are busy today. / cynicism
And everyone of those people answered the question with “No, I did not look at the Sun, I got something in my eyes.”
You can do the test yourself. Get an 8.5″X11″ of 1/8″ grid. Put a distinct dot in the middle of the paper. Stare at the dot and see where the grid disappears. Sketch in the blank spots, those are your burns.
Don’t panic if each eye has a blind spot. That’s normal.
……..and Al Gore said there would be many more of these and the earth will be blacked-out 83.4% of the time by the year 2033.
I enjoyed your presentation, thank you and many thanks to all those who took over while you were away…..and welcome back soon.
Maybe he was planning on passing in front of the sun.
Don’t plan on the beach when Al Gore is there!
Great to hear from you, and I knew you would find an ideal clear spot to view the eclipse. I was in Perry, Fl to view the total eclipse on March 7th, 1970. And incidentally it’s path would have crossed the path of the recent total eclipse in South Carolina:
I don’t believe the NASA crowd mentioned this from Charleston SC on Monday…
Great post Anthony and Charles. My daughter was giving me live updates from Oregon. Stuck in the San Francisco Bay Area, but at least the San Francisco fog cooperated as a perfect filter for live viewing and pic-taking. Fairly boring on a scale of things, but casually done from my front yard with an early glass of wine:
http://village.photos/images/user/b0f8f44b-d0c4-4bcf-8a5d-6f6dd319371c/73f171d3-3dc3-4ee3-8bc4-4b98ee622dd7.jpg
Illustrates an interesting aspect. Why don’t we see the Moon? Because the blue veil we call the ‘sky’ is actually in front of the Moon [it is our air. You are breathing some of it…], blotting out the black disk that is the obscuring the Sun.
Gee, and here I thought it was because the side of the moon facing earth was only illuminated by Earthshine, and that was darker than the light coming from the sun that was scattered by the air.
So now you know better…
Damn CO2 again! It ruins everything!
I didn’t have the foggiest idea……
And… this is why lsvalgaard comments are usually skipped by me. Clyde, you know better.
The coronal light is brighter than the reflection from the moon, and therefore washes out the reflection. That same “blue air” is there when there is a non-eclipsing new moon – and you can frequently see the earthshine in good weather conditions, and with a sufficient angle from the sun.
I do recall seeing one photo from many years ago, when there was a total eclipse when the moon was near to perigee, and the sun was exceptionally quiet – and the earthshine was visible.
You can see the earthshine on the new moon at night when there is no sunlight to be scattered by the air. During day hours you never see the earthshine at new moon. The issue is also not if you can see the corona [which you cannot] at such times. The point is that the blue sky is in front>/b> of the moon and prevents us from seeing the dark lunar disk. At night, there is no scattered sunlight and we can see the lunar disk illuminated by the earthshine.
The sunlit moon, fireballs, and Venus are the only objects that don’t get completely washed out by the sky.
A lot of people saw Venus during the day for the first time during totality. An interesting exercise is to spot it during normal daylight conditions. It helps to have really dry air, i.e. a deep blue sky. Both times I’ve seen Venus was the day after the moon and Venus were close together. I hunted down the crescent moon in the sky, then looked for Venus. The moon moves some 6 or 7 degrees in 12 hours, so it won’t have the same relationship with Venus that it had the night before. I stood under an awning that blocks both the Sun and a lot of sky to cut down on glare.
I was also impressed by the UK eclipse (circa 2001 or so).
The elipse was over a thin low-level stratus layer, with the Sun faintly visible (no glasses needed). I thought this would destroy the effect, but what we ended up with was a pall of blackness rushing in from the west at incredible speed. The four horses of the apocalypse at full gallop across the whole horizon, eventually plunging us into complete darkness. It was so dramatic I nearly forgot to look at the Sun, which was just about visible behind the cloud layer.
R
Thanks!
It is so great to hear you are doing well.
And the video is wonderful.
Enjoy your time, hope to hear more about your adventures.
I was in McMinnville for the eclipse, a bit to the west of where CTM and Anthony were. I will agree with the “jaw dropping”. The photos do not fully prepare you for the experience of standing in twilight with a huge black Sun with Venus twinkling overhead.
By the way, if you ever get to the area between Salem and Portland, do take a moment to pop over to McMinnville. For one thing, that is the location of the Evergreen Aviation Museum where the Spruce Goose is located and there are many other aircraft, both US and foreign including an SR-71 and an Me-262 which was the first jet fighter.
With the 747 on the roof of the pool with water slides coming out of it, awesome.
Yes, though the water slide is a separate business and therefore a separate ticket. I had a great time at the museum, though. A lot of history with Evergreen Aviation, too.
It’s also the site of two famous 1950s close-up UFO photos, and since then the locale of annual UFO confabs.