Eclipse

I'm an airplane geek. And a computer geek. And a fan of astronomy.

Naturally as a technical professional I use technology to learn more about my interests. A podcast that I subscribe to is Airspeed by Stephen Force, aka Stephen Tupper. His November 16, 2011 episode described his plans to watch the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 while airborne in an airplane which he would fly and place in the path of totality.

Path of Totality (Image from Wikipedia)

This was the first I'd heard of this eclipse, and I started my research. I wondered whether I'd be able to see it. I found maps that plotted the path of totality and quickly found out that I don't live near it. So I would have to travel. And I had six years to plan the trip.

The next question was, where to watch? After some thought, I concluded that I wanted to find a place that was most likely to be cloudless. I found a web site that summarized the historical weather patterns for the entire path. The western states seemed to be the best option, and when I saw that the path included Grand Teton National Park, which has good August weather, I decided that was the place to be. I visited the park in June of 2011 and enjoyed a wonderful picnic on the shore of Colter Bay. This was the spot.

Colter Bay in June 2011

I wondered, fly, or drive? I had never visited the region of the country between Illinois and Wyoming, so I decided to make it a road trip. Every now and then over the years I looked at a map and selected things to see along the route. Then I would change my mind, and change it again. Eventually I settled on an outbound route that took me from Virginia through Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia (again), Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, ending in Wyoming. The return route took us from Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia (again), Maryland, ending up home in Virginia.

The next thing to handle was lodging. I wanted to stay in Grand Teton National Park, with Yellowstone as my alternate. Reservations were not open until a year before the stay. And even though we tried to get a reservation on the very first day that the window opened, we wound up in a lottery, eventually getting three nights in Yellowstone, arriving on August 19, departing on the 22nd.

As the date got closer, I spent some time making sure the car was in good shape, including an early safety inspection. It needed new brakes, and I'm glad I got them because the mountain roads in Wyoming and West Virginia would have been scary with worn-out brakes. The mechanic told me the squealers were about to start sounding. Had I not replaced the brakes, it's likely I would have been faced with the decision of how to deal with the brakes during the trip. My confidence in that car was shaken when I had to have it towed in the months before the trip. Twice. One problem was with a bad ignition switch. The next was two bad keys; the car interrogates the chips in the key and won't start if the key is bad.

I convinced my teenage son to join me for the drive. My wife joined us enroute in Billings, then left us in Rapid City.

This blog is mostly about photography. Of course I planned to photograph wildlife and landscapes along the way. The eclipse was a photographic target too. A year before the eclipse, I bought eclipse glasses, fearing there would be a run on them as the date approached. I bought a screw-on lens filter for my 300mm lens from Thousand Oaks Optical, having seen a recommendation on a web site run by an eclipse hunter. To hedge, I also got a filter sheet that could be stretched over the end of the lens and secured with a rubber band or tape. I tried the screw-on filter, experimented with exposure settings, verified that it worked, and put everything away for the trip.

Threaded Solar Filter from thosandoaksoptical.com

Solar Filter Sheet from thousandoaksoptical.com

Shortly before the trip, I got a new 500mm lens. This presented a problem. I had planned to use the 300mm lens, with filter, hand-held. With the new lens, I had to revisit the filter issue, and I had to bring a tripod. There are no filters that big, and the lens has a slot near the camera mount to insert small filters. There was no way I was going to put a solar filter in there; the large glass at the big end would behave like a magnifying glass concentrating the sun's light into a hot spot. I wound up using the sheet filter on the 500mm lens. I put the 300mm lens and filter on my old crop sensor body and handed it to my son. I used the 500mm lens on my full frame camera body.

With lodging arranged, and a route, and camera gear, I planned the itinerary, submitted my vacation plan to my employer, and waited for the departure date to arrive. My big worries were the things I couldn't control: the car reliability and the weather.

Outbound, we stopped at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Pompey's Pillar National Monument in Montana, and entered Yellowstone National Park via the Beartooth Highway.

Our priority for our first full day at Yellowstone was to scout the location to watch the eclipse. We drove the 76 miles to Colter Bay to assess the location and to find out how long the drive would take on the 21st. The park service was very vocal about the need for visitors to avoid the south entrance of Yellowstone on that day, but we had no choice; that was the only route. The park service also established three viewing areas, one of which was Colter Bay. They said that those locations would be closed until 6AM on the morning of the eclipse. They also said not to expect to have cell phone service. Expect traffic gridlock. Expect limited ability to get food, water, or other services. Portable toilets would be available at the viewing areas. We brought food, drinks, coats, sunscreen.

We selected a departure time that left plenty of time for the drive to Colter Bay with allowance for heavy traffic. While there were in fact quite a few cars on the road at that time, they moved well in the darkness and we arrived at 5AM, with a few people already there, and no one preventing us from driving right up to the parking lot at Colter Bay. If they were blocking early arrivals, we didn't see it. There were a few groups already setting up chairs on the shore in the darkness and cold. We selected our spot on the gravel shore and waited for daylight and the big event.

The lot did get full, and there were quite a few people, and it was nowhere near as bad as the park service warned it might be. There were bathrooms for the picnic area and campground; they were not crowded. The shop sold food and coffee. It warmed up and the thin overcast disappeared, leaving a gorgeous blue sky. My worries about the weather disappeared.

I set the cameras up, and the partial phase began.

It Begins

Little by little, the moon obscured the sun.

More of the Sun Obscured

When about 90% of the sun was hidden, the mid-day sunlight took on an eerie appearance, not like the golden rays of twilight, but just dim, or weak. The mountains seemed washed out in color. As the crescent shape of the sun dwindled in size, it suddenly became dark, like a moonlit night, with stars showing. A quick diamond ring effect seemed to flash, and then the sun's corona appeared.

Almost There!

Totality!

Is that a Flare?

We took the filters off the cameras, and for nearly two minutes, fired away and just stared with our naked eyes at the sun. It's not like you see it in pictures. It's much better!

Another diamond ring, then we quickly put the filters back on, then the stars went away and the dim light returned, and daylight quickly lit everything up again.

The Diamond Ring Means It's Almost Over

We hung around until nearly the end of the event to avoid the worst of the traffic, drove back to Yellowstone with heavy traffic that actually moved well, and that was the end of the eclipse adventure.

On the return trip, we exited Yellowstone via the eastern entrance, through Cody, then through the Bighorn National Forest, with a visit to Devils Tower National Monument, stopping in Rapid City. While staying in Rapid City, we visited Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, then passed through Badlands National Park at the start of the long slog home.

The car worked great, 5000+ miles and thousands of smashed bugs later, we got home with no mechanical problems.

5000 miles, two weeks of vacation, lots of money, for a two minute event. Was it worth it? My son who never gets excited about anything said, within seconds of the end of totality, "That was awesome!"