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Solar Eclipse 2017 Discussion Thread

at_nyc

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Good grief! Do you have to rain on every positive comment I make about this?
Talk about April Showers.....:doh:
If you post as many messages as you've been doing, it's hard to avoid commenting on some of them.

And if you consider every one of your posts "positive" and sacred, the only thing I could do is to say "bravo" in order not to be considered "raining on" them!

So Bravo!

Happy now?
 

nemesis256

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I'm late to the eclipse report due to being on my Oregon/eclipse trip, but it was phenominal! Most incredible thing I've ever seen. I was between Madras and Redmond, weather was perfect. Had a totality of 1 min 40 sec. While it was happening I was surprised at how long it felt, but 5 minutes later it was way too short. Took a lot of photos, which were 95% automated so I barely had to pay attention to cameras. Haven't processed them yet, I'll post them here once I have something.

Traffic the day before and day of was almost non-existent, got lucky on those days. The day after I was headed to Crater Lake, it was bad then. Took 1 1/2 hours to drive 12 miles or so at one point. It felt like 1/4 of California was there. I saw more Calif plates than Oregon.

Having to wait another 7 years for the next one in the US, and then I'll be starting to get old for the next one...just doesn't seem like it's enough. Are the crowds in Texas going to be even worse in 2024 because that's the only likely place to have clear skies?
 

TonyC

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Are the crowds in Texas going to be even worse in 2024 because that's the only likely place to have clear skies?
The crowds will be worse because there will be 20x as many people who have seen one exhorting their friends and family to go.

The population that lives within the 2024 path is far larger, with major cities San Antonio (divided by southern limit), Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Montreal (divided by northern limit).

Clear sky weather odds were not that great on the eastern half of the path this time. But the only places mostly clouded out were coastal South Carolina and a swath from eastern Nebraska through Missouri to part of southern Illinois.

There is a lot of inertia of people going to where they have planned and staying put. Carbondale, Illinois was the classic example. People paid to view from inside a football stadium and were lucky to get 12 seconds of totality through a hole in the clouds. Meanwhile veteran eclipse chaser Dan McGlaun was nearby, saw the clouds coming and made a mad dash in his car during the last half hour before totality to get out from under them.

A lot of the places in 2024 have mediocre weather odds, but we have decent short term forecasts and an excellent highway system. People need to take advantage of those. It's not ridiculous to stay in the Northeast if you prioritize mobility. If a big weather system is going to cloud out the whole region you are likely to know that a few days in advance.

We had divergent weather forecasts in Jackson up to 4AM on eclipse day. The majority of forecasts were favorable so 40 of us stayed put and went up the Jackson tram. The other 17 gave up their tram tickets and went for the more unanimous clear forecast in eastern Idaho. In our case we had been to 8-10 other eclipses and really wanted to see this one from 10,000 feet. The amazing view we got justified our taking that chance. Of course we had another event planned up there:D, which could have been performed later if the weather was bad and everyone went to Idaho. We had some concern that people would follow us up the mountain for the wedding, so I sent an e-mail at 5:15AM disclosing that the 2 most veteran eclipse chasers in our group with 20+ viewed were decamping to Idaho and that each group with a car was free to make its own call.
 
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TonyC

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Sorry...remember the total in SD in the early 90-s I think and it just didn't impress me.
That was an annular eclipse at sunset on Jan. 4, 1992. This was the first eclipse I traveled any distance to see, from home in Glendale to San Clemente. That wasn't far enough; the clouds from L.A. got there 15 minutes before the eclipse became annular.

An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon is too far away from the Earth to block the Sun completely. Thus there is a bright ring of photosphere around the Moon and you must wear eclipse glasses at all times. Annulars are really a special type of partial, and as with all partials it remains thousands of times brighter than a total eclipse, with no view of corona, solar flares, chromosphere, etc. There was another annular in the Southwest on May 20, 2012, which we viewed from Lake Powell. That trip was more of an excuse to see other points of interest, like Antelope Canyon, Rainbow Bridge, The Wave and Zion National Park.
 

TonyC

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Did that make a difference in the views due to having slightly less atmosphere to look through?
We have never seen corona streamers that long, so I would say yes. We also saw the wispy smoke from Idaho fires to the west turn black two minutes before totality reached us because it was 60 miles away. One of our friends at the eclipse works at JPL and she says absolutely the altitude would enhance viewing. And finally, Joe Cali from Australia had seen the 1994 eclipse from 14,000 feet in Bolivia and raved about how long and clear that corona was.

The desire to view from altitude has to be balanced against mountains being cloud generators. That same Joe Cali was with our group but opted for the more certain weather forecast in Idaho this time.

We got some media attention.
WeatherChannel.jpg

We should get a copy of the Weather Channel's video of our wedding. There are stories online from Esquire and Outside magazines.

JHMR referred the Outside writer to us. https://www.outsideonline.com/2235826/j ... ld-eclipse

We met the Esquire writer at an event in Pasadena where she was covering Jay Pasachoff's lecture there.
http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a57037 ... e-hunters/
 

TonyC

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Very impressive pictures by nemesis256. Is that totality pic a composite of multiple exposures? I hope you had some time to observe!
 

nemesis256

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Very impressive pictures by nemesis256. Is that totality pic a composite of multiple exposures? I hope you had some time to observe!
Yes it is, 9 exposures. Like I said in my earlier report most of the photo taking was automated, so I got plenty of time to observe. The camera for the wide angle photo was set to take photos every 10 seconds. The one with the telephoto lens was done using a remote, so I was able to watch the eclipse and trigger the remote without looking at the camera. The only thing I had to do on that camera was change the shutter speed to be longer for the totality pictures vs the diamond ring pictures. I did a lot of planning on how to take photos and also watch the eclipse, and it worked very well.
 

TonyC

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Nemesis, that is an extremely impressive job of photography, especially for a first timer. Where were you?

Your telephoto camera could be set up to take the 9 different exposures during totality only using the remote? What kind of camera? Were pics RAW or jpeg?

You might want to look into this next time: http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/Solar_Eclipse_Maestro_Help/pgs/c0sem.html

We are lazy photographers and do not own a DSLR, which is required to use the above program. There are some eclipses including this one where I have taken no pictures at all. At the first one in 1999 I spent about half of totality taking pictures. Since then I've cut that back to maximize viewing time.

I would be unlikely to undertake an ambitious photography plan without a DLSR and Solar Eclipse Maestro.
 

nemesis256

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Nemesis, that is an extremely impressive job of photography, especially for a first timer. Where were you?
Thanks! I was in between Madras and Redmond OR, a short way down a dirt road that had an open area for cars to park. I scouted it using Google Maps. There were aprox 30 people in the area.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/44°25'46.8"N+121°02'36.8"W/@44.4296629,-121.0446569,435m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d44.429661!4d-121.043549

Your telephoto camera could be set up to take the 9 different exposures during totality only using the remote? What kind of camera? Were pics RAW or jpeg?
Yes, DSLRs can bracket exposures, which makes it real easy. I set the base exposure for the diamond ring, and the camera adjusts the shutter speed by 1 stop for each photo, so 4 below the base exposure, and 4 above. Before the eclipse started I already knew what my exposure settings would be, using a few guides/tables I found online. I also had a Skytracker so the camera would follow the eclipse, so it stayed roughly in the same place from photo to photo. This was my biggest worry of the entire process. The camera is held on to the tracker by two small screws, and isn't meant to hold the 5lbs or whatever of my camera and lens, but it held. During totality I increased the exposure time to get the corona (I forgot this step at first, too distracted by the eclipse!), then decreased the exposure back to get the second diamond ring. The telephoto shots were with a Nikon D7200, wide angle was a D7000. All raw photos.
 
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Tricia

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OutsideOnline has a pretty darn good article about how Jackson Hole prepared for the onslaught of eclipse traffic as well as some of the unique things that happened leading up to the event. Worth reading. (Thanks @Mike King for bringing it to my attention)
How Jackson Hole Survived the Total Eclipse
A couple quotes from Tony Crocker and Liz:
One such eclipse chaser was Tony Crocker, a retired actuary from Los Angeles, who emailed Anna Cole, the communications manager at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. “The top of the tram at JHMR is perhaps THE best spot in America for this eclipse,” wrote Crocker, who has traveled the world to see ten total solar eclipses. “When viewed from a very high vantage point like the top of the tram, viewers will see the shadow crossing the earth from nearly 100 miles to the west, passing directly over them, then passing over Jackson Hole as it moves to the east.” Crocker sent more emails to Cole and others at the resort, writing so passionately about the event that he made it sound as though seeing the total eclipse was as life-changing as watching the birth of your child.
 

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