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.
Also, I did not experience the claimed traffic hell. There was one place at about Weed,CA where they were doing construction and there was a backup due to that and there was a little bit of congestion at Eugene due to merges but otherwise if was fine. I took 99W south from McMinnville, cut over to 99E on Noraton Rd and from there on 99 to I-5 at Eugene. Smooth sailing all the way home save that backup around Weed.
My wife recorded the NASA and ABC coverage.
NASA coverage was so bad that I switched and watched the ABC coverage.
Bill Nye almost made me switch back, but he bumbled around so much it was pretty funny, even though it wasn’t supposed to be.
The end is Nye. Definitely cringe-worthy.
Got to build a 4′ pin hole camera and watch partial eclipse with family. Crescent shadows from leaves. Usable reflection off water.
I envy your choice in campgrounds! Lee Ann and I had reservations for camping in Madras, but we bailed on them because the crowds were so large. Instead we watched using a pinhole viewer and tv coverage.
Saw the eclipse. Not awe inspiring but rather boring. Of course stunning at totality but that is when I left to beat the traffic.
I55 was totally jammed on the way back to Wisconsin.
You will have to take that up with the good Lord when you meet him.
If
capitalistfiles: I felt much the same way. I was at home, which meant no traffic to fight. Our news keeps calling it “life-changing”, etc. Totality was indeed stunning, and the “diamond ring” as it comes out of totality, but the rest was basically just things darking and a small temperature drop (5° F where I was). The complete silence and stillness was also noticeable if you weren’t where there were a lot of people. I can’t see myself driving anywhere for the next one.
Hasn’t everyone seen a partial eclipse before? Rather slow paced, but great to watch in a maple tree. It didn’t seem as slow on Monday, but we had more things to do and the anticipation was much greater.
I saw an annular eclipse in 1994 or so. I knew it was going to be disappointing, but there were a couple effects I noticed that were nice to know about before seeing the last 1% of the sun get covered.
We didn’t leave until well after totality ended. Must’ve been at least 120 seconds. 🙂
I viewed the eclipse near Broken Bow, Nebraska. We were the only people on a ridge and the nearest neighbors were miles away. It was foggy in the morning with a 30% chance of rain at 1pm, which was about the totality time. The fog burned off and we had clear weather the rest of the day. It was an amazing experience. My brother drove up from the Tucson area to view the eclipse with his telescope. My daughter had two cameras going at the same time. At totality, the security lights at the local farms came on and the lights dotted the landscape. The wind completely died down; it got very quiet except for the crickets and we could see the line of darkness approach from the west. When it started getting light again, all the grazing cows in the area started mooing. We could see both Venus and Jupiter with bare eyes at totality.
It was oddly emotional for me. I would not have traveled that far on my own, but I am glad my brother urged me to go with him. Absolutely wonderful.
My daughter was watching from St. Paul, Nebraska … drove down from O’Neill to catch the totality at the park along the Loup River with her dog. Not crowded like I heard Grand Island was (not a motel room or campsite to be had there) and she got a nice clear view. i’ve read about animals acting strangely (elephants at the Nashville zoo apparently got agitated when totality ended) but her springer spaniel was too busy playing in the water with some labs to notice. 🙂
Flew a small plane from Raleigh (95%) to Triple Tree (SC00) just east of Greenville SC for the total event. Triple Tree is a very small version of Oshkosh with about 200 acres of parking with a long grass strip. It appeared about 200 planes made the trip.
Going down, I-77 between Charlotte and Columbia was very busy southbound and coming back was stop and go coming north, so a lot of people made the trip by car.
My impressions were: 1. It was incredible and well worth the trip 2. The intensity of the Sun dropped visibly and the 40% or so cumulus coverage just disappeared before totality. Obviously the lack of heating lessened the updrafts and a very warm atmosphere did the rest. 3. The change in shadows were remarkable 4. The temps dropped noticeably and returned pretty quickly afterward 5. You could see the dark umbra coming and leaving. 6. During totality, it was like the sunset around the entire horizon. You could rotate 360 degrees and it all looked like 20 minutes after sunset. 7. The cumulous clouds also returned within an hour.
I noticed on the GOES-16 visible image you could see the cumulus there before the shadow came across and gone after it passed in a lot of the areas. Must be a common phenomenon.
I’m glad people like AW get to photograph it so we can have visual images to remember. The best I have is some shots with my iPhone.
Going by plane was the way to go, but quite frankly we ended up staying 3 hours while everyone left. Quite an assortment of old planes and new. A Staggerwing Beech, Pilatus PC-6, DC-3, D-18 just to name a few. Plus Pilots are always a great group of people to share this with.
Little structure in the Corona. Weak magnetic field.
Supposed to be about 89 percent at my location. Didn’t have approved glasses, but used a combination of sun glasses, the plastic lenses that optometrists supply, AND CLOUD COVER to get a couple of glimpses. It was mostly sunny, but with clouds puffs around. Near the time of maximum extent, whenever I’d see it go dark outside from clouds passing in front of the sun, I’d go out and see if I could see it … safely … through the clouds. Got two or three good peeks at it. If I’m still around in 2024 I’m going to plan to visit my son in Texas and hopefully experience the big show.
Thank You both.
I viewed from a piece of welders glass and used that glass over my camera on the phone to take some photos. It would not show the moon coverage, I realized after that, I might have gotten that photo if I held my camera an inch away from the glass.
“crepuscular rays” I did capture some of those ! Thanks for telling me what they are ! I also captured another planet in my photos but don’t know what it would be.
I saw totality from Russellville, KY.
Unlike the bandwagon jumpers, I’ve been planning this since 1997 — and I wasn’t disappointed. Every part of it was worth the money and the effort. Photos and videos just can’t capture the vividness and contrast of the totality. I was on my knees and my eyes were watering up; words couldn’t describe the view.
Everybody be sure come here to Indiana in 2024 for the next one in the US!
If I’m still alive, that’s where I’ll be on 4/8/2024!
I still think that Anthony Watts should be knighted by the Queen. Arise, Sir Anthony!
We experienced totality in the Sandhills of SC; awesomeness! While driving back to campsite, I mentioned to my lovely bride about the spectacular sunset as well…with the C. Rays visible long after the sun dipped below the horizon!
Very interesting post (and comments). Thanks Anthony and Charles.
Welcome to the Moon Shadow Club Anthony & CTM (not to mention the tens of thousands of ‘newbies’ elsewhere). I witnessed the Big One over Baja California Sur back in July 1991. I considered myself a fairly experienced amateur astronomer even back then so I thought that I would take this big eclipse in my stride. With about 30 minutes to go I decided to show some non-astronomers with us how to project the sun’s image onto white card holding binoculars. Although the bino’s were fairly light, I couldn’t get a steady image as my hand was shaking far more than I realized.
I’ve seen several “Great Auroral Storms” that have gone on all night. I have seen a handful of Great Comets that have been spectacular over many nights. I have seen 22 consecutive Total Lunar Eclipses from my area of New Zealand in the past 50 years that have come in all sorts of hues including a few black ones thanks to El Chichon & Pinatubo, but those 6 minutes & 50 seconds in the lunar shadow will remain at the pinnacle of all the things that I have observed since I became interested in astronomy. To be able point binoculars at the eclipsed sun and directly see not only the exquisite detail of the silvery corona but the cherise coloured solar prominences sticking above the dark limb of the moon was very special. I liken it to being given the key to a room of vast treasure that you are allowed to look into and be dazzled by only for the guard to close the door and take back the key. It is easy to see why people travel so far and so often to witness this.
Very poetic!
Thank you!
Thanks Anthony. Much appreciated.
My astronomy-inclined partner blew her mind in Wyoming yesterday. I expect to here it was far better than the total eclipse we experienced together in North Queensland in 2012.
NASA had poorly initiated tracking cameras. About half way they got better.
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If I were king I would have resuscitated an SR-71 Blackbird and had them pace totality with a sonic boom across the country.
Now there’s an idea!
If I were king I’d have set up an organization to assist with housing and feeding for visitors all along the path of the eclipse (e.g., a central website for making reservations), and especially done all possible to facilitate visits by foreigners. It would have been good PR for the U.S.
there were tracking something else (can do only one task at any time)/s
there were some sunspots in the view aligned more or less parallel with the solar equator.
note: the sun’s equator is inclined by 7.25 degrees to the ecliptic, while the Earth’s equator is inclined by by 23.45 degrees, hence the inclination in the solar equator as viewed from ground
Your photography far exceeds mine. And not just because of all the beer I had for breakfast before the eclipsing process began.
“We were by ourselves – blissful solitude.”
The best way to experience the great celestial event.
During totality it’s vision, sounds of nature and the temperature change all attacking the senses simultaneously for far too short two minutes. Last thing I would wish to be is among crowd ‘oooing’ and ‘waaaooing’
Having seen two eclipses before in1961, among vineyards near my house, and second time in the secluded part of London’s Wimbledon common in 1999, on both occasions I was on my own. Observing total eclipse in the total silence is all together different experience.
I have to confess to near-shouting a few OMGs … I’ll try to keep my cool better if I make it to 2024 🙂
Annie Dillard wrote, in her classic essay “Total Eclipse,” at https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/annie-dillards-total-eclipse/536148/?utm_source=nl-politics-daily-082117:
Anthony mentioned his experience wrt the annular eclipse some years back. We were holidaying in Fernley, Nevada but were able to view the eclipse from a disused golf course on the outskirts of Reno…spectacular on several counts: on arrival at said golf course the only other person there was a gentleman called George who had driven up from San Diego (some 600 miles I think) with all the kit except a camera. A gentlemanly discussion ensued: George had the beer and was happy to distribute and I was more than happy to lend him my camera. American hospitality!. On return to the UK I read that Anthony had stopped off in Fernley for a coffee and was mortified that I had missed the opportunity to meet one my true contemporary heroes and shake his hand. Maybe next time!
Tony Windsor
Anthony and ctm, sure glad you found a lonely spot to spot the sun and moon.
I spent last night in Pendleton (going south) and there was an 8 mile 2-lane stop and go on I-82 at 7 PM. ODOT had a bridge lane closed northbound. Excellent bureaucratic planning, not.
But I heard a kid at motel marvel at the spectacle. Nice that her Dad didn’t rely on the NASA app to show her that piece of mother nature.
Btw, my total eclipse came in 1973(?) In Nova Scotia. Watched and photographed with my Dad.
you’re so vain
LOL, Last
And the next Great North American Eclipse is April 8, 2024. Going right over my sister’s house. Time to plan for it. https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024/
Some lucky people just south east of St. Lewis will see second totality in less than 7 years time, perhaps one of the places in the area should be renamed to Eclipsville.
Nice dramatic clip Anthony.
How does one share photos from a cell phone to a blog comment. I, too, have some unusual photos I would like to share. I could send them by email to someone who knows how to do this. I discussed the phenomenon in one of the eclipse threads in which the canopy of a tree creates “pinholes” of light through to the ground that project living images of the sun. Any sunny day the sprinkle of round light spots can be seen in the shade of a tree.
I have a few photos of these plus magnificent scatters of of the crescents of the 66%eclipse max at Ottawa, Ontario.
Hey how come the eclipse wasn’t caused by CAGW ? the alarmists are slipping .