Forum gathering & eclipse party?

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by tServo

You had some good info about going to St Louis which may come in handy for 2024. It looks like the track thru Illinois will go more northernly so there may be even more options.
Indianapolis is in the totality track. U of Indiana may be the next hot spot.

Ironically, Carbondale had some issues with clouds while we at Benton had a totally clear sky so I really lucked out.
The people from the weather channel at Saluki stadium said they only got a few seconds of totality.

The clouds were scattered and moving quickly the whole day. Around 40 miles east of Carbondale we have several cloud patches come and go over the course of the partiality leading up to the eclipse; totality was totally clear, thank goodness, and only a few minutes after totality another 5-minute-long thick-cloud traversed. We definitely got somewhat lucky to get a clear totality.

[only_human]

15 second video showing solar power decrease in areas affected by the eclipse.

Total Eclipse Vs Solar Power

[LaurV]

Hm... you are all lying... we looked to the sky all the night... didn't see any solar eclipse...

[Spherical Cow]

Like several others, I was in Madras, Oregon and just got back last night- Really spectacular; and it was especially nice that there were several good sunspot groups visible, even though we're in a solar minimum. The picture below is with a cell phone mounted on a 6-inch reflector.

And like others, the traffic was incredible. The 1-hour drive back to where we were staying took us only a little over two hours (because we listened to Google Maps as it changed routes), but our observing partners needed over 6 hours by staying on the main roads.

Worth every minute of it, though, and every gallon of gas between Tucson and Madras.

Norm

[MooMoo2]

Originally Posted by tServo

You had some good info about going to St Louis which may come in handy for 2024. It looks like the track thru Illinois will go more northernly so there may be even more options.
Indianapolis is in the totality track. U of Indiana may be the next hot spot.

There are typically too many clouds in that area on that date (April 8). It's worse if you're further northeast, though (from Ohio to Maine).

The only place in the US where you can expect clear or mostly clear skies is a small area surrounding Eagle Pass, Texas

[Spherical Cow]

Doing some processing of our eclipse images; playing with contrast and brightness and such to see how much I could pull out of the outer corona and how far out it would show up, and the star Regulus popped out of the murk. Checked an on-line planetarium program just to be sure, and its right where it should be. Venus was visible during the eclipse, but I don't actually remember seeing Regulus. It shows up on several shots, but not all. This digital processing is neat stuff!

Norm

[rcv]

No advance plans, other than a Delorme atlas of Wyoming with my hand-drawn lines across a few pages showing "center line" and "southern limit" of totality. Just good luck. Glendo State Park. Got a non-reservable campsite on the 20th, as the previous occupants were packing up to leave. Due to topography of the lake and peninsula, my campsite was a single, isolated lakefront campsite. With a very low lake level, the site was enormous. I didn't need it all. So, I shared with a group of college students. [Limit 2 vehicles, 2 tents per campsite.] Park rangers drove into my campsite that afternoon. They were content. Next morning, cars started coming into my campsite and its stubby little access road before sunrise. I told them they were welcome to stay as far as I was concerned, but if the ranger came, he might ask them to leave due to exceeding the capacity of the site. By 1st contact, my campsite and access road contained about 15 cars and 35 people, It was definitely a party atmosphere.

The composite contains 20 stacked images taken approximately 4 minutes apart through a homemade solar filter, and 1 image taken during totality with the solar filter removed. A jet and its contrail photo-bombed my final image. The camera was mounted on a tripod and was not moved during this composite, so the composite reflects the actual movement of the sun and moon through the sky on that day.

I'll let the poets supply the words to describe totality. However, I will assert that "totality" is an entirely different phenomenon that any other phase of the eclipse. No photo I have ever seen does it justice. One camera had battery trouble. My other camera was dedicated to the attached composite.

The drive north on I-25 was about 2.5 hours. The drive south on I-25 was about 12.5 hours (including two 3-hour naps, while waiting for traffic to ease up.) It was worth it.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Spherical Cow

This digital processing is neat stuff!

I could have told you that, had you bothered to ask.

Now that you have a good estimate of the PSF of your imaging equipment (Regulus is a point source yet its image is readily seen not to be point-like) you can process your image further to reduce the blurring of the solar structures. How to do so in practice is left as an exercise. If you would like suggestions and/or assistance please ask.

Nice image, BTW!


(added in edit: I may snarf a copy of your image and see what I can do. Unfortunately lots of other things are also clamoring for my attention.)

[Spherical Cow]

Originally Posted by rcv

However, I will assert that "totality" is an entirely different phenomenon that any other phase of the eclipse. No photo I have ever seen does it justice.

100% agree- That instant totality hits, it is an abrupt, dramatic change; nothing like it, and definitely can't be captured in photos.

Originally Posted by xilman

I could have told you that, had you bothered to ask.

Now that you have a good estimate of the PSF of your imaging equipment (Regulus is a point source yet its image is readily seen not to be point-like) you can process your image further to reduce the blurring of the solar structures. How to do so in practice is left as an exercise. If you would like suggestions and/or assistance please ask.

Nice image, BTW!


(added in edit: I may snarf a copy of your image and see what I can do. Unfortunately lots of other things are also clamoring for my attention.)

Thanks- I will be stumbling up the learning curve as time allows, but definitely plan to ask for hints and assistance so I don't miss anything critical. If you do decide to work with the image, I can send you the .CR2 file (Canon raw file), or something more complete than the above .JPG (higher resolution .TIF, etc.). Would be fascinated to see what you can pull out of it.

Norm

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Spherical Cow

Doing some processing of our eclipse images; playing with contrast and brightness and such to see how much I could pull out of the outer corona and how far out it would show up, and the star Regulus popped out of the murk.

Norm

I saw it with my eyes. I had dark adapted one for 25 minutes before totality.

Originally Posted by rcv

No advance plans, other than a Delorme atlas of Wyoming with my hand-drawn lines across a few pages showing "center line" and "southern limit" of totality. Just good luck. Glendo State Park. Got a non-reservable campsite on the 20th, as the previous occupants were packing up to leave.

The drive north on I-25 was about 2.5 hours. The drive south on I-25 was about 12.5 hours (including two 3-hour naps, while waiting for traffic to ease up.) It was worth it.

I was just up the road in Orin.

[rcv]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

I saw it with my eyes. I had dark adapted one for 25 minutes before totality.

I was just up the road in Orin.

Cool! I arrived at Glendo at about 6:30 AM on the 20th. The park's entrance booth wasn't yet open. I continued on north to Ayers Natural Bridge, but decided that wasn't a great spot (too low, no view of the horizon), so I headed back south, scouting the choices. I took highway 319 at Orin, and found several spots along 319 that would have been good for viewing and pictures. I stopped again at Glendo State Park to check out the park. Our views would have been quite similar.

A friend of mine, sent me a link to this stunning video, which started north of Glendo. Since you were right there, you might appreciate it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ti0Qd-ULEA