Eclipse

[highup]

Anyone have a good view of it? Everyone in the US can see it, but some more than others. Makes me wish I hadn't sold my big camera lens.
I think I'm at about 96% 150 miles north of me gets into the 100% range. Only an idiot would attempt driving that direction right now.
250 miles northeast of me gets you into Oregon's "high" desert. Right now it's a nightmare.
Here's the sleepy little town mentioned in the article.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/08/18/solar-eclipse-draws-thousands-to-small-oregon-town-as-state-prepares-for-viewing-frenzy.html

Oregon has a lot of nice flat desert area in the path of totality, but being sparsely populated out that direction looking for gas or groceries has got to be scary right now with a couple hundred thousand adventure seekers roaming around.
The coastal area is probably packed too, but people who have planned years in advance to see this event know it can be cloudy or foggy, so I know most serious solar seekers planned to go inland to see this event.

I got my glasses, so in case it's clear out, I'll get to see it get light at 6am, then dark again at 10:15am........ when it gets light again, I'll go to work.
(if UPS shows up with my stuff)

 

[highup]

Here's an overhead view of the landscape up there. I think a lot of what's called Oregon's high desert is about 3000 feet.

 

[Floorist]

We are also in the 96% range. Guess I will watch it, if it is not too cloudy. In Northern Missouri where it will be 100%, they are predicting rain.

 

[highup]

Best thing about it here is it's easier for the fog to burn off by 10 am if there is any. For stuff like the Perseid meteor shower, the fog during the summer rolls over a nearby low hill pretty often about the time the sun sets....... where I live anyway. It either barely comes over or barely doesn't come over. I'll just keep my fingers crossed. I'm gonna look up what film I need to buy and hopefully my zoom lens will make it a tiny bit larger.
I read that digital sensors will be damaged by the sun unless you have the correct type of solar filter. Do some research if you plan to take any digital photos.


I heard that the tiny town that I mentioned........... or the surrounding area will have 200,000 extra residents, not 100,000
It's estimated that a million people are coming into the state to see the eclipse. Our entire population is 4 million. Wow. A lot of people are makin' a lot of bucks this week. ..trinkets, souvenirs, tee shirts. Not to mention motels and bed and breakfast places and makeshift camp grounds charging $900 to $1500 per night.

 

[Jon]

Got a friend who hails from San Fran who is on a cruise ship now and sent me an email She's in Ketchikan today, Juneau tomorrow. Won't get to see much, if any of the eclipse in Skagway. Probably be raining.

 

[Ernesto]

Been cloudy here all di day.

 

[Nick]

Storms yesterday, Hot today , Golf tomorrow . All is right with the world ..

 

[Hardwood]

i'm in 98 percent area. I'll go outside a few times during the eclipse and see. I do have approved solar glasses. I think watching the ground effects will be interesting.

 

[DarisMulkin]

i'm in 98 percent area. I'll go outside a few times during the eclipse and see. I do have approved solar glasses. I think watching the ground effects will be interesting.

You are in an area where you will notice a difference in the light. I'm in a 80% area and they say we won't notice any change.

Daris

 

[Floorist]

Got dark here. I got bored.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Right now here it is like a cloudy, rainy day here.

 

[highup]

Cloudy rainy and coooool?
I think the temperature was one thing everyone I talked to noticed. Amazing that a small sliver of sun puts out a lot of light, but not so much heat. It was quite noticeable even at 10am
I was in the 97% coverage and honestly, I figured it would be a lot darker........... not like night time, but at totality I was cutting some aluminum "T" track to a narrow width in my table saw. Plenty of light to do virtually anything you could do on a normal day.
The humming birds seemed really active. More activity and more humming birds than normal anyway. They were zippin' all over the place.
I was worried about the suns altitude during the eclipse and was prepared to drive into town because of trees next to me. As the eclipse was about 20 or 30% underway, it was obvious to just stay home. Neighbors driveway was perfect for setting up the camera and the trees weren't in the way.
I did 8 shots 15 minutes before and 6 shots 15 minutes after totality, and another 8 during totality, bracketing from 1/1000 to 1 second.
Now I need to find a place that still remembers what film is so I can get it developed. Life used to be a lot easier.
Not having my big lens any longer sorta hurts right now.
Oh well, I know I got something, but I just don't know what. If anything is even decently exposed, I'll be happy with my latitude and my 97 %.
I know now that 97% and 100% are totally different.............. I'm talking night and day different.

 

[Jon]

Just watched it on TV here and wish I was there to see the real thing

 

[Hardwood]

It did darken some. And the bugs started singing.

Here is the best photo I took. It got to about half that sun showing at the most coverage here.
And I learned of eclipse shadows after it was passing back to normal. The shadows are very interesting.

The shadows



The best photo I took.

 

[highup]

What's the surface the image is on, Angie. Did you use solar glasses as a filter over the camera for the eclipse shot?
I looked at the shadows but they were all on the gravel driveway or road. I shoulda tossed a piece of plywood or poster board down on the ground to make a decent photo of that............ darn I'll have to wait til the next one.

 

[Hardwood]

The shadows are on my concrete steps. The solar glasses were held over the lens for the photo. Did some on my cell phone that way, too.

 

[Hardwood]

Here are some cell phone photos.

The steps shadows via cell phone:



The dirt under the trees with shadows via cell phone:



With the solar glasses over the lens on the cell phone, this is when the light was changing.

 

[highup]

Those are good. I shoulda looked around a bit more, there was plenty of time for it.
Maybe Ernesto can dig up a couple of his shots he made from a few years ago. He had some neat shadows on the side of his house.

 

[Hardwood]

I hope he does. These were fun to make. Especially since I went no further than the driveway.