Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 - Part II

Part II - The Eclipse

Start of the Day

As with the other mornings in Wyoming, on Monday the 21st of August, I was up around sunrise (~06:30).  However, this morning I could not ease myself back into slumber.  The reason why was obvious--it was the day of a total solar eclipse.

My first goal was to pack.  Our whole group was going to be leaving the area, some right after totality, others would wait until the partial was complete--I was going to be one of the 'laggers' because of my photography.  In an effort to not be "that person" who everyone else was waiting for, I packed-up early.  

Having stacked my camping gear near the truck, I grabbed all my observation equipment (cameras, tripods, etc) and wandered up the hill.  A few folks in our group had already popped up top to photograph or just witness sunrise.  I have to say, I was relieved to see an absence of clouds given the previous day's weather.

Once again, I setup the telescope which had over-nighted in its weather-proof cocoon.  Next, I started preparation for the coming photographic adventure: programming custom settings into my cameras. 

After having reassembled the telescope, programmed the cameras, gotten my mobile phone ready with the timer app and a battery pack connected, and having deployed multiple video cameras, I basically sat back and watched the crowd gather for the start of the early-morning festivities.

Initial Partial-Eclipse

The big event started at 10:23 that day and there was quite a crowd gathering.  Since we had a good 81 minutes until totality (yes, that is pretty precise), I was able to mingle.  Some of the best fun I had for this event was sharing my enthusiasm with anyone who was interested.  After meeting several great people in the days leading up to the eclipse, it was wonderful to see most of them gathering on the hill.

I had forgotten to bring my hand-held weather meter (wind speed, temperature, pressure, etc) so the "scientific observations" I had thought about recording, just did not happen.  But for all of posterity, here are the interesting aspects of the eclipse that we witnessed:

• The temperature drop leading up to totality was dramatic - The temperature dropped by maybe ~20°F (~10°C) in the lead-up to totality. Some folks walked back to camp to get a jacket.
• I did not observe shadow bands ("shadow snakes") - I had not setup anything special for observing them, so no surprise.
• No observed changes in animal behavior - I do not recall the crickets starting to chirp or any change in birds--although we were not in an area that was overpopulated by either.
• There was a noticeable change in the wind - The light breeze calmed down during totality. To some extent I expected this. Since the preceding day was windy (10~15mph) and I had kept a side-tarp on the canopy rolled up due to wind on the day of the eclipse, it was notably calm during totality.
• Noticeable changes in shadows and sharper vision - This was a dramatic phenomenon that I had not expected--but makes sense. As the relative size of the Sun shrinks, it becomes more of a point-source of light. The Sun and the Moon are just over 0.5° in size as vied from the Earth (Angular Diameter). My younger son, who was with me to witness this event, observed how the shadow of his hand was ultra-sharp, even when held at a distance from the ground.  My vision felt like someone had turned-up the contrast on my "TV" to 11--it was surreal.

Related to the sharp shadows, I had come prepared with a few pin-hole projector examples and a white, foam-board as a screen. This certainly had a "wow-factor" for the crowd. Demonstrating how "pin-hole" cameras could be make a with their fingers, or any other object such as mesh from a camp chair or their straw hat, resulted in wonderful entertainment.

Totality

I have to say, even as an engineer/scientist who likes to write about my observations, it is hard to explain my reaction to totality in words.  I think a deeper, primitive section of my brain took over during those two-plus minutes, and even though I was mostly working on automatic processes (breathing, balancing on two feet, thumbs pushing the shutter buttons :-), etc) I was not able to hold back a shout of excitement. 

Where we were located, the time of totality was calculated to last 2 minutes 16 seconds.  This was based off of maps from NASA, a French mapping web site, and the Solar Eclipse Timer app, all focused down on our GPS-based location: N 42° 25' 10.95" W -105° 20' 43" give-or-take.

Better than trying to describe the event, it may be easier to just show you.  Here are a number of videos and animations from our total eclipse viewing...

Videos

Here is a 15min long video, clipped down from an hour-long capture.  Totality starts around the 2:30 mark.  This was taken on a Canon FS100 video camera and was looking North towards the "viewing site".  A majority of our group is in-frame.  Things to notice are how dramatically the background lighting changes from partial, to total, back to partial and the crowd's reaction at each stage!

This camera was positioned to gaze northward from our viewing site, overlooking the Wyoming plains.  A Garmin VIRB X was used to capture this video.

My intention was to try and pick up the eclipse shadow as it moved across the landscape.  The original video was also an hour long but I shortened the clip down to 5min with totality starting at about 1:30.  If you slide through on the video, the darkening and subsequent brightening of the sky and landscape becomes more apparent.

There is also a complimentary version from a buddy who used his GoPro, pointing in a slightly more easterly direction.

For an idea of how short the totality event really is, this last video is a time lapse of the crowd starting ~30min before totality and ending about 30 minutes after.  This was compiled from an original GoPro Hero, duct-taped to a stump, clicking off stills every 5 seconds.  The angle was shot towards the South with the 'flare' of the Sun creeping across the upper-left, just out of frame.

I have at least one other video that I have not posted (and may not, mostly because the audio is very distorted). For that capture I used my dash-cam sitting on the table next to the telescope.  I had hooked this camera up to the same battery pack as my cell phone, which is possibly the cause of distortion.

Photos

My shots from totality were mostly under exposed due to my basal matter malfunction...

As the shadow passed over us, I celebrated just like everyone else, eventually jumping on my telescope and camera gear to remove the filters from both scopes.  Success!  Well not quite.  It had only taken about 15 seconds to get the filters off but the next step was supposed to be me switching the exposures over to those custom setting I had so carefully programmed into both cameras.  ...enter 'cave man' Marty... that was the point where my event rehearsal broke down.  I did not bother with reprogramming the shutter/times and just opted to bang on those two remotes buttons as if I were playing an old sports game on an original Nintendo.  I just clicked away, "going manual".

Because my exposures were set for a much brighter target (with the filters), my shots were mostly under-exposed and I did not get the bracketing I had so carefully planned.

You tell me, what do you think of these...

This is a combination shot very near C2 (start of totality).  I superimposed the corona from my 50D and the detailed prominence from my 6D.  The red prominences on the right-side of the photo were visible with the naked eye.

If I were to estimate from memory, I would say the corona was visible out to about 6-radii.  Because my totality shots were under exposed, I wanted to just capture a version here that did not push the digital editing process too far.  For this and other combo shots, I simply expanded the size of my 50D photo to match the size of the 6D--so more detail came from the full-frame camera.

Here I have a similar combination shot very near C3 (end of totality).  Like the one above, I used a corona shot from my 50D superimposed on a prominence shot from the 6D.

This is an un-doctored image from my 6D, very near C3.  The "diamond ring" is just about to appear and the red prominences are very visible on the right-side of the Sun.  I think this technically counts as a "Baily's Beads" shot.  I just love the detail the prominences (unfortunately they are slightly out-of-focus).

In summary: 

It happened too fast!  

I want more!

If I were a betting man (and I am), I would place money on just about everybody we met on Esterbrook Hill, trying to make the 2024 eclipse.

Final Partial-Eclipse

The time after totality, running up to C4 (the end of the partial eclipse) was very reflective for everyone who was still milling around at the viewing site.  Most of the folks decided to depart--helplessly trying to beat return traffic--but some people stuck around.  I was still photographing the partial as the Moon moved on in its orbit, so we hung out for a while talking through our shared experience.  It was good to chit-chat with the others who stuck around.  Eventually, I started to pack-up my gear as we all basked in the renewed warmth of our nearest star.

Other Shots

I compiled this .gif animation from my Canon 50D.  Individual frames were taken at 3min intervals during the partial eclipse phase.  Two totality shots are included, since totality lasted less than 3 minutes, these two shots are only around 2min apart.  The sequence does a good job of showing how brief the period of totality really is.  Sorry if the 'jitter' is bothersome, this was a first-cut, manually stacking photos, positioning, filling, etc with GIMP.  I should have an updated versions posted here in a little while.

Returning Home

Driving home was a test of ones patience, but I have to say, most people were in a good mood.  What had taken about 5hrs to drive up from Colorado Springs, eventually took over 8hrs on the return--and we were the lucky ones.  Others in our group took more than 10hrs to return home.

Conclusion

I have a list of people I met on the hill that weekend whom I will be pointing to this blog.  Please feel free to copy these photos and share with family, friends, etc--I only ask that you give credit with my name:

Martin D. Stoehr

Photos and video here are © 2017 by Martin D. Stoehr, All Rights are Reserved.  These low-resolution version may be distributed as you wish with the noted proviso of providing credit.  If posting on the web, please try to include a link to this blog.

I will spend the next month or more producing many high-res shots including a panorama/composite of the total eclipse.  If you are interested in printed copies of any photos here, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for visiting my blog!

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As with the original Star Wars trilogy, the best part of the story starts with a later episode.  I have captured this total eclipse adventure in a number of postings for my own recollection--and you are more than welcome to visit the other pages...

Part I - The History

Part II - The Eclipse

Part III - The Technical Details