Total Solar Eclipse

My consolation "certificate of merit"....

I crawled off my deathbead of bronchitis + serious side effects of medicine to help keep it from nesting in lungs thus causing me months of issues (the fillers in the meds play havoc because of my celiac-tell me WHY they put lactose in medication???)

This was taken at 12:59 pm central or roughly at the point of most coverage for us, about 86%. Taken with an iPhone 7+, 10x zoom, with a #15 welding filter held to the camera lens. The phone shielded my eyes as I took the shot.

James Freyr wrote:This just in....

absolutely perfect and beautiful James!

Deb so sorry to hear you're ill! I wish you a rapid recovery!

Thanks Judith! It was really cool. I've never been in the totality shadow of a solar eclipse before. It really was breathtaking. My chickens went in their coop and the songbirds stopped singing and it was pretty quiet aside from some distant rebel yells from some of the local fauna that live on the other side of the woods. I was surprised I didn't hear any celebratory gunfire. Right after the shadow passed and the halo was gone a pileated woodpecker in the woods started making a ton of racket. I imagine he was saying "what the hell was that?!"

The clouds broke just in time for the peak viewing and back half of the eclipse. God is good! We (my husband, a neighbor and myself) enjoyed the view, a couple of tomato/buttermilk biscuits (they look like golden suns) and some fried apples. Yummy!

I love the pictures all of you have posted. James, thank you for some great images there. That hollering you heard was probably my sister, she left my house yesterday headed your way.😁

Dale, to assure us there hasn't been any abduction, please check in.

I am trapped inside some sort of giant orb. It was hovering just above the tree in my first photo. I wasn't sure if it was real, so I threw a rock. I was immediately pulled off of my feet, and flew through the air into the mouth of what appears to be a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It smells like a slaughterhouse in here. My shoes are starting to turn to goo, so it's not looking good.

..........
I didn't do my research. I knew there was an eclipse coming, but figured that everybody would be on to it, and that it would somehow be announced. I was listening to CBC Radio yesterday, and the guy said to expect it around noon. I did just that. The problem is, that show came out of Toronto and I'm on Vancouver Island, in the Pacific Ocean, a long way from Toronto. The peak here was at 10:20 a.m. . At that time, I was in a stairwell, on an elevator, and finally on the northwest side of a large building. An old lady in the laundry room, commented that it was pretty dark today. I thought nothing of it, and went on yakking with the person who was showing me around the building. It didn't seem very bright this morning, for a day with no clouds, but I wasn't keeping close track of the time or the sun or anything else, since I was hoping to witness an eclipse at noon. I drove across town and was in a basement apartment until shortly after 11, when I decided to start watching for the eclipse.

 I had Googled it a couple times, and each time was overwhelmed with stuff from the United States. Even when I searched eclipse and Canada together, it led to stories about Canadians heading south to watch the eclipse. So, I took the guy on the radio at his word, thinking that I was listening to a local show.

I don't think that NASA will be calling anytime soon.

On the bright side, so bright that it can wreck your camera, the small image from my second photo, seems to have a chunk missing from the sun. I'm going to tell myself that I managed to get a shot of the eclipse, from a regular Samsung Galaxy that was foolishly pointed at the sun, when it was almost too late.

We only had a 90% eclipse here, but it was still really cool. Around 80% coverage and my camera started wanting to use flash, and the shade of the trees got dark. When it hit 90%, it was dark like dusk in the shade. The lighting got darker even out of the shade. It was like indoor lighting brightness, rather than the bright light of day. And, the color was all wrong for how light/dark it was. Usually when it gets that dim outside, everything is tinted orange and yellow, but instead it was all very blue. The purple thistles looked neon in that lighting!

As for how the eclipse affected the animals, our ducks kept foraging and didn't seem bothered by it. Our kittens played vigorously, like normal. My three year old son got really nervous, either from us making a big deal of the eclipse or from the weird change in lighting. My 9 month old daughter acted like she always does. At 10:14, about 7 minutes before our apex, the birds all got really active, singing and moving around.

We had a lot of fun making eclipses with various holey things, like leaves, a cardboard box viewer, a colander, my husband making the "okay" sign with his hand, etc. It was a lot of fun, kind of trippy, and really interesting!

We went to our twins' elementary school here in Kansas City, Missouri. The entire school, staff and kids had watch parties today, watching the NASA feeds and kids calling in, and they went outside every 30-60 minutes. All the kids made paper plate masks to fit their glasses into (provided by the school.)

My observations were that when totality got really close the shadows seemed to pretty much disappear. Cell phone shots from my Galaxy S6 showed very defined/dark shadows around 20-25 minutes before totality, but the temps were already noticeably cooler than 2 hours earlier in the day... 5-10 degrees maybe. As totality occurred (1:07PM) it came to look about like 8PM... the shadows diffused until they blended in to the background. My wife had a friend who called and said she had spare glasses, and she returned about 15 minutes before totality. I took half a dozen pics that turned out pretty well, through the glasses, on between 1x-4x zoom. The cloud cover was heavy in the morning, including a downpour about 9:30 or 10AM... and after we left the school, it started raining hard again about 2:30PM... but, the Lord was kind and it was dry enough for the kids to put down blankets on the blacktop, and other than scattered clouds we got a wonderful viewing window in time.

All the kids were so excited, so it was by no means quiet... but I noticed that during those 2 minutes or so, the cicadas stopped their singing, and even though the clouds interfered a little with the return of the sight of the sun, the cicadas all seemed to start up again together! Quite an experience! (I DID use the glasses my wife picked up and pressed them down on my cell's camera with fingers on both sides, and was pleased with the shots I took.)

Yay, the universe gave me a great b day present this morning. An eclipse. Hope everyone enjoyed this celestial event. I sure did.

'Bout the cloudiest two and a half minutes of the day here, but it helped a bit with some of the photos.  The 360 degree sunset during the middle of the day was a nice consolation

Dale, I'm glad the aliens returned you unharmed. I believe they were trying to extract the secrets of permaculture from your brain. I hope the secret is still safe.
And, that picture does look like the moon barely eclipsing the sun. Either that or the door to the spaceship was open.

James, I just heard from my sister. She was actually in Sweetwater, Tenn. They've been on the road 3 1/2 hours now and haven't even made it to Knoxville yet. Heavy traffic!

You guys have great pictures. Leif, I tried putting the glasses over my cellphone camera, but the pictures sucked. I erased them. Guess I didn't hold it tight enough. I don't know what happened.

Nicole, I love the leaf picture. I wish I had thought of looking at the shadows made with a colander . I'm glad I had solar glasses, the cereal box didn't do right. All I saw was a bright round dot, no bite out of it. I guess I bought the wrong kind of cereal.

Devin, Happy birthday! What a way to celebrate.

Deb, I'm so glad you made it outside today. I hope you are better soon. When you told us you couldn't travel, I felt....deflated. I'll leave it at that. Sigh.

EVERYONE, I'm glad we could share this special day together. Permies united!

(Edit: I just logged on this morning (Tuesday) and I realized Tom Worley and I were posting at the same time last night. I didn't get to see his pictures until now. They are so cool. The sky looks so ominous. Good job Tom!)

My daughter and I drove to tiny Colton, Oregon, inside the zone of totality, but for 50+ seconds instead of 2+ minutes.  We camped out at our farm in Beavercreek the night before, to beat traffic.  Also, Colton is on the way to nowhere.

Nevertheless, I got just about the last parking space available at the Colton Lutheral Church.  Lots of other people had the same idea!  It was a festive atmosphere, people on folding canvas chairs, kids throwing balls, dogs on leash.  The church was kind enough to open up their Sunday School building to give the small crowd access to their toilets.  We had lots of snacks, I brought a craft project, and I had a playlist put together by NPR which was awesome.

The all-around sunset effect was super cool, as were the . . . what did you call them, Deb?  The light was flickering in waves as the totality receded.  You could see it best on the ground.  During the total eclipse the sky went dark blue, and I saw stars, but it didn't go to full night.  I am now inspired to travel to southern Illinois for the 2024 eclipse - I have relatives in West Frankfurt, which is very close to Carbondale, Illiinois.  Next time I want to be near the center line of totality.  The cool thing is that if you draw the lines of totality for the 2017 and 2024 eclipses on a map of the United States, they cross at Carbondale, Illinois, like a giant X.

The diffraction bands, those were the flickering. That is one of the really ultimate cool bits about a totality, is those before and after as you are nearing the Diamond Ring phase and right after when that shows back up.

Clouds may part when the temperature drops. Briefly. On centerline you could have 10-15 degrees drop.

The other awesome was when I was looked west as the diffraction bands were skittering along on the white snow (1979 in winter and waist high snow) and looked at the shadow. It was racing at 1200 miles an hour, or better than mach 1, and we were just past point of longest duration of totality (by just a few miles, so this is where the Earth, Moon, and Sun were really lined up) and that shadow was about 80 miles wide and it had MASS. Honest. This thing was 240,000 miles long and running at me and going to fall/hit me. I looked up partways and that was just so awesome with the SCALE and the speed. You do not normally see such things on this Earth.

I am hoping everyone had a really good eclipse. The only other time I remember cloud breaks was when I was in college (pass #2) and took a Halley Comet class at graduate level (only one that did). And would get up at 3:30 in the morning to take my observations at -35f. AT dewpoint, just before, even if the clouds were socked in, it would break for around ten minutes. IF you were all set up and aimed you could wait for some clouds to pass, make the sighting, move it a few times and confirm the sighting, log it, and pack up, and try to get the cover on the end of the scope before dewpoint flashed through and everything coated with frost. That wasn't a good thing for an aluminized first surface mirror. I can still tell to this day when dewpoint is imminent and when it's been passed. (most of the rest of the 'wusses' (actually dedicated faculty) I was working with, would go to bed about 1 when it was socked in. They might get 3 nights out of 10, I'd get 9 out of 10.)

If you look on weatherchannel.com they have a clip showing (for the first time ever) the moon's shadow passing across the Earth's surface as witnessed by the weather satellites. Totally awesome.

I did get my consolation prize shot. Those of you that used the eclipse glasses, no the filter material wasn't stiff enough to provide a good flat surface to be in contact with your phone camera surface, to provide a good image. I had a $4.75 ancient 'parking lot sale clearance' Harbor Freight welding helmet I popped the cover 'glass' off and stole the lens out of it. And held that tight to the iPhone 7+ I have, then used the phone on 10x zoom (maxed it out) and used the little 'adjust light level according to THIS spot' touch feature, and quickly take the shot before it decided to use that reflection blur as the default and unfocus the crescent, again.

The 1979 eclipse I got seven film shots. Some was because my filter slipped from touching the Argus C-3 35 mm camera's lens that I had borrowed, and some was from it being so cold the film broke in the camera. I had to wade a ditch that was past waist deep in powder snow on my knee down lower legs like snowshoes and across the road to the local meat processing plant (area butcher) and beg to borrow his big walk in freezer to change the film. I had more film at least. So I was locked in the dark with about 30 sides of hanging beef to change the film by touch. At totality I did aim the camera straight and burned a hole through the negative a few times and that was no fun to clean off the backplate. So I have seven shots of very very small images of totality. And had to write a note to accompany the film to developing about there may be holes in the negative and print everything.

Plus during totality I dropped that camera in the snow and it froze up, I took off my silk inner gloves, and froze all ten of my fingertips. I was watching what my hands were doing as I couldn't FEEL them anymore.

Was one of those GREAT times.

Glad they booted Dale out again, but I would hope they did pry the permaculture secrets from him, so they could revitalize their own world, and all the ones they get to after this....
Beware Dale, they may start abducting you to run workshops and classes Somewhere Out There.

I wish I had seen Judith's box method ahead of time-that was awesome.
My kid and I set up in the back yard with two pieces of cardboard, using the pinhole, and paper plate method. I set the pinhole piece on a music stand, a large white poster board propped up at an angle on the ground.
We relaxed in a couple chairs faing north, eating our lunch as the time neared.
There was a pop up thunderstorm a mile or so away. We got to see the moon shadow creeping over the sun, and at maximum coverage for our location, with accompianing thunder. The moon shadow became faint, then we could barely see a shadow from the music stand. Dusk decended. THE MOSQUITOES ATTACKED! Who knew. Seriously, from ground level to 18" off the ground all around us there were mosquitoes spaced at about 3 inches intervals. But I calmed my panick. My friends, basil and plantain defended us.
Even here, there was a significant temperature drop. The edge of the storm hid the moon's retreat from us, but the rain stayed at bay. We had around 93% coverage. It was amazing.

My honey, at work on the cities' roofs was totaly unimpressed-as he was toiling away most of the day in the rain. He couldn't tell if the darkess was from the storm, or the eclipse.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:I wish I had seen Judith's box method ahead of time-that was awesome.

Joylynn...I should have posted this pic along with eclipse images...not just a box  <grin>  
I see my emoticons are gone...am I being punished? >wink<

here's a picture of the whole thing early in the day when he was setting it up...it ended up complicated and propped up as he turned by various books and blocks.  The telescope wired to a makeshift tripod was delicate in the end to get the image just right on the paper.  We used the cardboard pin hole also for some smaller images to trace on paper.  The telescope gave the larger image which was pretty cool...just hard to adjust and move with the eclipse.

Joylynn, I'm glad the storms held off for you. I was worried about that here too. Right after the eclipse I started getting flash flood warnings on my phone. Some streets in town (15 min. drive) had to close due to high water.

Judith, That's quite a design there. If he starts making a bunch now to hold in storage for 2024's eclipse, he could cash in on those.

The next eclipse, I'll be in the 50% zone. I may very well be traveling to see that from inside the line of totality. And, with better gear too.

Now that the day has passed, I say we all head over to James Freyr's for lunch. I hear he's serving PIE 😉

Yes, pie for everyone! C'mon over!

I've really enjoyed reading all the comments and seeing other pictures and how folks made pinhole viewers. I have a very vague memory of making a pinhole viewer in elementary school in the early 80's to see a partial eclipse. I'll totally make a day trip in the truck to go see the next one in seven years!  

The best pinhole I ever built was for an 85% Annular event that tracked through Texas as a full annular (and I remember that a lot went to see it and got socked in) was the 10' of 4" PVC pipe with a T put at the bottom. (put the stem of the T to the side to make porthole to look in at the card taped to the end)  Foil and pinhole on the other. Set viewing end on ground and point it up and look. Gave about a quarter sized image. Didn't have a pipe and T on hand for this one. I had my lightbucket packed and it stayed there as I was not up to dragging it out by myself-even in two pieces it isn't light.

Thanks everyone who have been sharing.

Jim, I know I'm going to head for Texas, we might see each other... keep apprised on where your target location is... heh.

News of my release is premature. Not something that I said. I'm still up here, but no longer inside the sun. It turned out the Flying Spaghetti Monster was not a deity but a transport vehicle. Although it has only been one day for you Earthlings, it has been 1000 years for me. I spent the first 100 years inside the Spaghetti Monster. I was so sick of fettuccine by the end.

Later I was released to start learning the secrets of the universe along with a few others. The Pale Rider is a really fun guy once you get to know him. I have made several deals with his boss. These guys are terrible gamblers. They have a reflective quality to their skin, and I was able to easily detect which cards they had. After one tournament, I found myself in charge of 100 galaxies. Management of these galaxies has kept me quite busy for the last eight hundred years.

It's been decided that I should return to Earth in a few days, to work on cleaning up the giant mess. My plan had been a full scale invasion, but they want me to go through normal channels and convince humans to live in a more sustainable way, rather than force them into it. I will attempt my conquest of Earth, through creating numerous YouTube channels, where I offer a wide array of entertainment and education. It had been planned that I could only do this until I'm 97, but after another card tournament, I won another 75 years. Hopefully, by the time I'm 172 years old, YouTube will be mine, and it will be used toward permacultural ends. I may Ascend for a few days, now and again, to learn more or to petition everyone, in favor of launching an invasion. It should be fun. Returning to the Milky Way tomorrow. Back on Earth by Thursday.

"Joylynn...I should have posted this pic along with eclipse images...not just a box  <grin>  
I see my emoticons are gone...am I being punished? >wink< "
Judith



Oooh! I was wondering how your shadow was so large. What magnification strength is your telescope? We have one that I know nothing about. Maybe I can put something together for the next eclipse.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:


"Joylynn...I should have posted this pic along with eclipse images...not just a box
Judith



Oooh! I was wondering how your shadow was so large. What magnification strength is your telescope? We have one that I know nothing about. Maybe I can put something together for the next eclipse.

That telescope is probably fifty years old and a cheap one of my brother's at that.  I don't know the magnification but it's not a whole lot I'm sure.  I'll see if I can find out.  I'm sure you could set something up that would be easier to manipulate than this  one was.  Having a stable way to hold the telescope was the big problem challenge.....

Dale Hodgins wrote:"News of my release is premature."

There I go believing fake news again. Sorry Dale.

"Although it has only been one day for you Earthlings, it has been 1000 years for me.

And, I'm sure after all this time, you still have your good looks and boyish charm. 😊

Dale, I'm sure glad you're on our side. We'll "see" you when you get home. Safe travels. Watch that re-entry, I hear it's a bit bumpy.

We were at only about 65% totality in upstate New York, but it was fun anyway. I didn't have time to prepare well with traveling and stuff. (I had been thinking that being so far from the totality line we wouldn't see anything.) My wife made some soot-coated mason jars from some internet advice that didn't work at all (no real image visible through the bottom of the jar), and then I threw together a cardboard box-like contraption (no actual boxes in the house) with a pinhole poked with a nail through a piece of brown paper... it was the best I could do in a few minutes while the eclipse was nearing maximum. But we could see a BB-sized image of the crescent whenever the three-year-old grandkids weren't grabbing the box or putting their fingertips under the image. My stepdaughters took cell phone pictures, and got the same multiple crescents with a bright blur nearby as previous pictures here showed. We lucked out with the weather, as there were some light clouds in the area, but they didn't obscure the sun for long.

We'll be just 50-60 miles from the edge of the totality path in 2024, so I anticipate a day trip to the Ontario Lake shore (centerline) then... and the kids will all be big enough to fully appreciate it.

As soon as I put on the dark glasses I began to feel like Elwood...  and alternate song lyrics started coming to me.

I'm a Sol man.
I'm a Sol man.
Play it Steve.


I see a new moon a risin'
I see there's darkness on the way.
Don't look into the light
It's still way to bright.
There's an eclipse here today.


Mommas tell your children
Not to do what I have done.
I watched an eclipse
With no glasses on
Now I'm blinded by the sun.


It's Interesting where the mind goes when it's been inspired.

Will do Deb. I don't know where I'll be but I'm sure total solar eclipse thread v2 will spontaneously form in seven years and we'll go from there!

James Freyr wrote:Will do Deb. I don't know where I'll be but I'm sure total solar eclipse thread v2 will spontaneously form in seven years and we'll go from there!

I plan on being here that long and I will gladly start that thread m'self. Hope to see you and everyone else here too for that next round of 'the greatest show ever'. Heh.

I live in Europe. But I saw a total eclipse once (some partial eclipses too during my life). In 1999 it was exactly during summer vacation (like now) and the path of the total eclipse would pass over Northern France. Only one day riding the train from where I live. A day or two before the eclipse my son and I went to the campingplace in Le Havre. Already so many people were there for the eclipse, there was no free spot anymore on the campingplace itself. But for this special event a large lawn in the nearby park was provided for more tents.
It felt special to be part of such a large 'community' of people loving to look at natural events such as an eclipse! They came from all over western Europe, were of all different ages and 'types'. Sure they each had their own individual reason for being interested to see the eclipse. I had the feeling all differences did not count at the moment of the eclipse. I don't have photos, but I do remember it, having only some small 'diamonds'at the side of the dark moon. It was wonderful!

I know I'm late in posting this, but I just saw the topic in my email and thought I'd add some thought.

I live in Hopkinsville, KY, lately called Eclipseville, due to being at the epicenter of totality. The actual center was a few miles out of town, but I don't think that'd make much of a difference. For me, the eclipse was a childhood dream come true. The few minutes it lasted, which flew by, was absolutely awe-inspiring. I had no words at the moment. It was the mist beautiful work of creation I had ever seen, besides my wife if course! I can only describe it as "addicting," and I want to see it again; I plan to.

My church hosted a viewing at a school we recently purchased. We had 15 acres set up for viewing, enough for 1000+ people for a GREAT price, and it was packed. It was a wonderful turnout and nearly every single car thanked us as they left.

I was able to take some pictures, with my phone, through my glasses. And I got one, not very good, of the totality. They'll help me remember this breathtaking experience.

And this one...

Aaaaaaand this one...

Great pictures. Love that last one. Looks like an eye in the sky.

We drove from Michigan to Tennessee, found a spot out in the country right on the center line of the eclipse. It was awesome. Worth the drive even with the return traffic and road construction.

I returned to Earth a few minutes ago. There had been a plan for a triumphant re-entry, to Times Square in New York, using a giant stairway, but Zeke wrecked it. He's a very jealous fellow and considered the stairway his own, since he is the last person to have used it. His proper name is Ezekiel. So, they beamed me down on a ray of light. It was very fast and not nearly as scary as when I left.

 4000 years gave me a lot of time to think. I've pretty much worked out how the entire planet should be managed. People are the only real obstacle. Still haven't figured out exactly how to make everybody fall into line. ☺

There's a waiting list for the planetary tractor beam. I wanted to throw in an extra eclipse, next month, but it turns out I can't get the thing until 2075. So, anyone still with us then, will get to witness another eclipse. We're going to zip the moon around in a zigzag pattern this time, to cover more area.

Just remember, signing your name in cursive with the shadow is just SO gauche....


(actually there will be another one in 2024 that goes from Texas to Canada so another chance a lot sooner than 2075)

I am hoping that the aliens somehow copied all of Dale's thoughts, creative imagination and past experiences to formulate them into a giant amusement park for all of us to visit and enjoy once space travel is as common as travel by car is here today. Who wouldn't pay to spend a day inside of "Dale's Brain The Greatest Show In The Galaxy"? Step right up ladies, gentlemen, Klingons...

Thank you Karen, you are obviously a woman of taste and intellect. I'm allowing people to enter my mind through YouTube videos. Still need to come up with some sort of catchy name. Maybe the permaculture know-it-all, or something else that fits my personality. None will be posted until at least 20 exist. I don't want to post anything until I'm ready to keep a constant stream flowing and have time to do all of the necessary marketing. That should happen in the rainy season.

Dale Hodgins wrote:Thank you Karen, you are obviously a woman of taste and intellect. I'm allowing people to enter my mind through YouTube videos. Still need to come up with some sort of catchy name. Maybe the permaculture know-it-all, or something else that fits my personality. None will be posted until at least 20 exist. I don't want to post anything until I'm ready to keep a constant stream flowing and have time to do all of the necessary marketing. That should happen in the rainy season.

I hope you do one about the cob benches many years later.  You had a great thread about that somewhere here.  It would be a good video to show people how they can make their cob last longer and how they could do cob repair.

I must say I am enjoying Dale's yarn of his sojourn in outer space. Dale, take me with you next time they come for you!

People have often warned me, that someday, "they" would come for me. I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did. None of them had white coats or nets.