Eclipse Photos

Click Here for All the Eclipse Photos

I finally had time to go through all my eclipse photos and post them up to a google photo album. I made a couple of composite pictures to try show the full eclipse from start to end.

I also got some pictures from one of the people that was with us at Smith's Ferry. Her son is in the Air Force and had a colleague who was flying a U2 during the eclipse. First to see pictures from a U2 at 70,000 feet is just plain cool. What the picture below shows is the shadow of the moon moving across the clouds from left to right.

There is also an interesting shot of the corona reflecting off the pilots helmet.

And a composite showing the different phases of the eclipse along with a picture of the shadow of the moon.

My favorite picture that I took was halfway through the totality

It shows all the cool things about the eclipse. The wisps of the corona, the black circle of the moon, and a solar flare. It was fun to go through all the photos and remember how it felt to see the eclipse but now it is time to get back to my normal life...

The Day of the Eclipse

After 2 days and 800 miles of driving it was finally eclipse day.  I checked the weather and astronomy forecast one final time to make sure we had 0% cloud cover for the rest of the day. The clouds predicted over night had dissipated as expected so everything was going according to plan.   Getting up a 4am is was not easy especially after a couple of days of hard travel. Our destination was Smith's Ferry 70 miles north of Boise. To get there it was a straight shot up country road 55. This road went straight north over a mountain and along the Payette river. It would have been a scenic drive expect for the fact that it was pitch black which made it a bit of white knuckle ride. There was some light traffic but we moved along at a good clip. At mile 40 we when over Horseshoe Bend which marked the southern edge of where the totality would be visible. So we were in the zone and would almost be guaranteed of seeing the full eclipse.

 Another 45 minutes of driving on dark winding roads we arrived at Smith's Ferry. The parking lot across the river had been sold out weeks ago but the grass parking lot between the road and river was first come first serve and was mostly empty at 6 am when we got there. One of the reasons we got up so early was to make sure we would get a spot.  I parked along the river which had a clear view of the eastern horizon where the eclipse would be. Cars were slowly filtering in to the parking lot and it wasn't long before the spots along the river filled up. A BMW SUV pulled to the right of us and two jaunty older gentlemen with bushy beards get out. They weren't talking in English. They come over and introduce themselves. They are from the Swedish astronomy society and are seasoned eclipse chasers and have seen over 12 eclipses.

The first thing they do is to take out a set of small Swedish flags and stake out the area they want to set their equipment up in. They announce that they claim this land in the name of Sweden. When I remind them that this is already sovereign US land they say they will give it back by the end of the day and we laughed.

I head to the lodge at the north side of the parking lot to see how to pay for parking and what kind of food and drink are available. At the lodge I find out that parking was just $5 which was cheap considering other places were charging $25 - $50. I guess what Kurt said about this spot not being as well known at others was true.

Now that we were parked there was nothing to do but wait for the eclipse to start. I spent the couple hours before the eclipse talking to the other people around me and setting up the my telescope. I also took a couple of test pictures of the Sun to make sure all my equipment was working. I notices a bunch of sunspots that would make for more interesting pictures.

The telescope I was using was a new telescope that I bought a few months ago since the drive assembly of my old telescope was becoming unreliable. The new scope is an ioptron Smartstar cube. It is a very compact telescope and has a wide field of view which makes it perfect for observing the Sun. It has a built in GPS and motor drive so once it is aligned to the sun the motor drive will keep it pointed at the Sun as it moves. To take pictures I have an adapter for my IPod touch that aligns it with the lens of the telescope. As a back up I had my good Canon 12x zoom camera on a tripod with a solar filter which I would also use for wide angle shots at the moment of totality. I spend many hours before the trip learning how to use the equipment and take it pictures of the sun. I will say the new telescope worked flawlessly and stayed perfectly pointed for the 3 hours or I was using it.

The excitement was building as the time approached for the partial eclipse to begin. At 10:16 am both the Swedes and I called out first contact as we saw the Moon start to cover the sun. As the eclipse progressed I had a constant stream of people coming over for a look through the telescope. By this point the people that had parked around us had become one big friendly group.

I took pictures every 10-15 mins to document the progress of the Moon passing in front of the Sun. As the totality approached I talked with the Swedes about what settings to use for taking the pictures since the light would be a lot different then. They gave me some pointers but said that each one is different so couldn't give me any specific.

About 20 mins before totality I noticed it getting colder and darker. It was really weird to see it getting darker as the Sun was rising. You might think it was like the twilight approaching before sun set but it felt different than that some how. Its really hard to explain unless you were there. In the next 15 minutes the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees and the sky when from sunny to a bright twilight.

As the totality approached I got both my IPod touch and Cannon camera set up for the 2 mins of totality. I wanted to get a least one good picture of the totality. I also set up my point and shoot Nikon on the roof of the car and started the video.

As my friend Fred said, who has seen an eclipse before, you want to take time to just enjoy the totality and not spend all you time taking pictures or you won't really appreciate it.

You can somehow feel when the totality is about to occur and as it approached the crowd started to yell and clap. When the Moon finally covered the Sun at 11:26 am everybody screamed and cheered. I quickly started taking pictures through the telescope which was easy as all I had to do was push the shutter button on the IPod touch. I took one picture with my Cannon camera then gave up on it as it didn't look like the exposure was set correctly and I didn't want to waste time working on. I stayed by the telescope just adjusting the exposure and a picture every 15 or 20 seconds. Since I had practiced so much before the trip I could do it with out really thinking about it. This let me just enjoy the moment and focus on looking at the totality with my naked eyes. It was a glorious 2 mins and 15 seconds that can't really be described.

Right before the totality ended I took a couple of quick shots with the IPod touch. I was shooting in burst mode which takes 10 quick photos. I was really lucky and got this shot right at the end of the totality showing the exact moment of the end of the totality.  If the video below doesn't work use this link to see it

After the totality there was more cheering and most of us where just in awe of what we saw and couldn't stop talking about it. Slowly people started leaving but we, the Swedes and some other people stayed to watch the last part of the eclipse. The temperature and light started increasing soon after totality as more of the Sun was being exposed. It felt as weird as when it was decreasing.  I kept taking pictures until the Sun was fully uncovered. At this point it was 1pm and time to leave as we had to get to Salt Lake City tonight for the flight home tomorrow. One of the people we were hanging around with came over with a beer in hand that she had gotten from the lodge. I wanted to do nothing more in that moment than go get a beer and just hang out there relaxing but we had a long drive ahead of us. So we exchanged emails and said good by to every one before heading out.

Although people had drove up to Smith's Ferry, Cascade and the other towns on route 55 slowly over the course of a few days and camped at various parking lots and schools that the town had open for them they all were leaving at the same time. When you put 50,000 extra people on a road that was meant for only a couple of hundred cars an hour its going to get a little backed up. The hour and a half drive to Smith's Ferry took 3 and a half hours to get back to Boise. This was expected and I didn't really care. We saw the eclipse and this was part of the price you pay for seeing it. Everybody on the road was well behaved and the police and towns along the way did their best to make it as painless as possible. What also made it bearable was the scenery that we did not have a chance to see on the way up.

Once it Boise and got on the highway there was no real traffic but we had 250 mile to go before we could sleep. It was a long drive but the adrenaline of the experience kept us going. We did manage to find the middle of nowhere.

The middle of nowhere is in Malta Idaho on Sublett Rd. The reason I know this is that there is a gas station there that states this on the start up screen of the gas pump. Besides the 3 alpacas and one very loud sheep (who live at the gas station for some reason) there is nothing around for 25 miles(not even a bathroom) so it felt like the middle of nowhere especially at 9:30 pm  

By the time we got to the hotel it was almost 12 pm. We have been up for 20 hours and were totally shot but still exhilarated from the experience. Fred went right to bed but I stayed up to repack the telescope and take a look at the pictures that I had taken. They turned out better than I expected even the wide angle shot taken with the Cannon camera. I made sure they all got uploaded to my google photos account to make sure they would be safe. I then send a couple to my wife and posted one on the blog at around 1:30 am before finally going to sleep.

I got about 5 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the airport the next morning. I was sleep deprived and happy to be going home. At the airport we ran into a lot of people who saw the eclipse and shared stories of where we were and how it felt. We were all still excited about it.

The flight home was uneventful and I was glad to get home and finally have a good nights sleep. It was a grueling trip with a lot of driving just to see the eclipse but we did see it and it was totally worth it. I also met some great people and had some adventures along the way.  I am still working on processing all the picture I took but have shared the best one I currently have. I will publish a link later with the full set....

...However the important thing is that I understand now why people travel around the world just to see an eclipse. Its not the just to look at it and photograph it but to experience that emotion that it produces that can't be duplicate any other way. I won't go to great lengths or expense to see every eclipse that happens in the next 20 years but there is another on in the US in 2024 and I'm going to be there so I can feel this way again.

Adventures Chasing the Eclipse

Seeing the eclipse was the sole and overriding goal of this trip but it didn't mean we didn't have fun along the way. On Friday night we landed in Denver. Although the eclipse, as shown in the map above, would stretch across the whole country the weather west of the Mississippi had a 20% higher probability of being clear. From Denver I could get a 1000 miles east or west along the eclipse track in 2 days so it gave me a lot of flexibility. Before the flight to Denver I checked the weather and astronomical forecast and focused on 3 cities Casper Wyoming. Rexburg Idaho, and Weiser Idaho which looked to have the highest probability of having clear skies. Anything east of there looked to be cloudy on Monday. I found Clear Outside tool and NOAA's digital forecast tool to be the best and most accurate tools for forecasting clear skies. For two weeks before the trip I had checked them against the actual local weather in the spots when I plan to see the eclipse. They weren't 100% accurate but when they were wrong they over predicted the cloud cover not under predicted it which I liked.

We stayed in Fort Collins on Friday night and a check of the weather showed that there was a 30% chance of light clouds in Casper on the day of the eclipse. That meant you would probably see the eclipse in Casper but there was still a 30% chance that a stray cloud could come along at the wrong time and block the Sun at the critical moment of the eclipse. Casper would have been logistically the easiest place to go since it was a 4 hour drive from Fort Collins. However to get the best shot at seeing the eclipse we headed west towards Idaho where the eclipse forecast showed between a 0%-15% of cloud cover.

So on Saturday we got up and started driving west with the goal of getting to Ogden Utah just above Salt Lake city by the end of the day. This would put us in reach of Rexburg Idaho, and Weiser Idaho where the weather was slightly better than Casper.

To get to Salt Lake City from Fort Collins you head north to Wyoming and then head west on Interstate 80. After reaching the border of Wyoming we saw the bull silhouette that Laura had mentioned on her trip out there last year.

The drive west on 80 was uneventful but enjoyable as the scenery was interesting along the way.  We went over the continental divide so we went up and down some pretty big hills and were some where between 6000 and 8000 ft for most of the time.

To break up the long drive to Salt Lake we decided to do a side trip. My friend Fred, who joined me for this trip,  likes to visit tri-points. This is where 3 states meet. The side trip was to the Utah, Wyoming, Colorado tri-point. According to the research Fred had done it should be possible to get there by car along some dirt and gravel roads. The attraction for me was that is was the highest tri-point in the country so it kind of fit with my high point theme of a couple of years ago.

About three quarters of the way along Interstate 80 in Wyoming we got off the highway and headed to the tri-point. The route there took us through the town of Podunk up the county highway to nowhere. Half way to nowhere just past the town of "Why the Fuck would anybody live here" we made a left on Devils Elbow Rd which took us to Bender Basin Rd then on to Road 4 and finally got to a dirt path that the GPS said should get us to the tri-point. For the most part the roads were packed dirt and gravel some better than others. When we got 4 miles from the tri-point the road turned to just two dirt ruts through the prairie grass. We had rented a Nissan Rogue which had 4 wheel drive so as long as the dirt was solid I was OK to keep going. However the road started having some deep gullies caused by rain water run off. Eventually we got to one that I thought was too deep for us to attempt to go over. If we got stuck or broke down at this point it would be a 10 mile hike to the nearest main road. I also didn't think phones would work around here with all the mountains in the way.

I was sad that I couldn't get Fred to the tri-point but we didn't want to do something stupid and spend the night in the wilderness. We turned around and headed back toward the highway. I will say that although this is a desolate area it does have a certain beauty to it and I stopped to take a couple of pictures.

About a mile before we got back to the county highway we saw a heard of elk. There had to be at least a hundred of them going across the road. I took a picture and had to wait 10 mins before we could continue. It was a really cool thing to see and made the tri-point detour worth it.

Saturday night was spend in Ogden Utah. It wasn't a bad place, we had a decent meal and a good nights sleep before continuing on to Boise Idaho on Sunday. The reason we decided to head to Boise is that the weather on the western side of Idaho by the Oregon border looked better than the eastern side for eclipse day. It was just under 300 miles to get there but with the speed limit at 80 mph it was a relatively quick drive.

Since I didn't know exactly where we would be staying each night I couldn't really make hotel reservations but was also afraid of all the hotels being sold out as we got closer to where the eclipse was going to be. My solution to the problem was to book multiple hotels for the same day at the different places that I might be. I would only book hotels that had a free cancellation policy where I could cancel a day before I got there. This worked out pretty well as every morning I would decide where would be going and cancel the hotel rooms I didn't need.

The hardest place to get a room was Boise Idaho as this was just 50 miles south of where you could see the total eclipse. I got really lucky and 4 days before I flew out to Denver and found one room in Boise for Sunday night on priceline.com (for $60). There were a few other rooms available but they were close to $1000 a night and I would rather sleep in the car than pay that price.

The room in Boise was in the Boise hotel which was a crap hole of a hotel but the staff was friendly and the room was clean. It was better than sleeping in the car.

When we checked in they told us our room wasn't ready and to come back in two hours. We decided to head out to a park to test out the telescope I brought along to make sure everything was working. We ended up in a park just about a mile from the hotel.

We had a few problems with powering the telescope off the cigarette lighter because the accessories won't stay on for more than 5 mins and some of the connections won't stay together. We worked out the problems and got a few good pictures of the Sun. I'm glad we got all the kinks worked out of the system before the big day.

While at the park we met a man (Kurt) walking his dog. Seeing the telescope he asked where we were headed to view the eclipse. We told him Weiser to which he said that he thought Smith's Ferry would be a better place. He has been listening to the news all week about the eclipse and said most people would head up to Weiser or Stanley and he had heard that theses towns were already overcrowded. We had talked to a couple of people at the hotel in Ogden this morning who were heading to Smiths Ferry to see the eclipse so the more Kurt talked about it the more sense it made to us to go there instead of Weiser. The piece of information that sealed the deal was that Kurt said that if we couldn't find a parking spot in Smith's Ferry all we had to do is go over the bridge by Cougar lodge and talk to his friend Janet who would let us park on her property. It is refreshing to me that you can meet a stranger and talk to him for a few minutes and have them trust you enough to give you some good advise and offer to help you with out wanting anything in return.

So after the talk with Kurt we decided to go to Smith's Ferry which ended up being a good decision I think. Smith's Ferry was actually on the center line of the eclipse so it would give us the most time in totality and if Kurt was right we would have an easier time getting a good parking spot because it was less crowded.

So Sunday night we are in a crappy hotel in Boise but we only have 70 miles to drive to get the a spot to see the eclipse.  The weather is looking perfect for Monday all the planning is working out and I will get to see the eclipse. I was almost too excited to sleep.

Moment of Totality

For 2 minutes 15 secs I was at one with the universe and understood all its mysteries...at least that is how I felt during the total eclipse on Monday. I had spent almost a year researching and planing the trip. Because of my aerospace background I understood, down to the mathematical level, the motion of the Sun and Moon. I could visualize the orbits in 3D and see the shadow that the moon was projecting on the US as it moved from Oregon to South Carolina. Because of my interest in astronomy  I knew all about the corona and what it should look like when the Moon passed in front of the Sun. I had researched different weather models and compared different astronomical weather prediction algorithms for predicting sky conditions to make sure I could determine, to the best degree possible, where to head to get a perfectly clear sky. At that moment all that knowledge came together so that I not only saw the eclipsed visually but was able to take it in on a number of different levels.

Getting to that moment was a lot of work. I had used the sum of all my knowledge to make sure I got to see it and capture a total eclipse that I know are rare, beautiful, and fleeting. I probably spend over a hundred hours researching the best place to be, determining the best information to use to predict where the sky would be clearest, coming up with plans with multiple alternatives to make sure I could stay ahead of the crowds and get around any traffic jams. It was a lot of work and some what stressful because I had only one shot to get it right. However at the point right before totality when I knew that this was going to happen all the anxiety I had went away and was replaced by the joy that I could finally relax and enjoy the totality...

...of course no amount of research can totally prepared you for what you will see and feel. For me it was awe inspiring and overwhelming. I got some great pictures that are probably similar to the ones you see on the news but what I saw with my eyes and experienced with my mind was much difference. As the astronomers, next to us explained, the human eye can see and put together multiple exposures and wavelengths together in a way a camera can't. Even if you have a camera that can take multiple exposures and put them together you only get a poor visual approximation. 

There is also an emotional context to the experience. I was in a field by the Payette River with a few hundred other people. Even though we didn't know each other before that day we quickly became family as we talked about the eclipse and ourselves for the few hours we were waited for the Moon to block out the Sun. At the moment of totality we were no longer a group of strangers but were like a society of druids celebrating the summer solstice. There was cheering and screaming and high fives all around. I felt connect to everybody there in that moment as we were all taking in the totality. It was a feeling of joy and happiness that is hard to describe.

I know that not everybody is excited by a solar eclipse and would not have gone through the trouble and planning I did to see it. For me however it was one coolest things I have ever seen or experienced. It was as powerful as expected but also much different than I thought it would be. It was not only visually and intellectually beautiful but also unexpectedly emotional. It is a memory that will give me joy every time I think about it. 

I have a lot of good stories around the moment of totality, that I will post later, about how we got to where we did and some the of things we did along the way like, almost making it to the highest tri-point in the country, watching Sweden annex part of the US, finding the actual middle of nowhere...

For now however here are some more pictures. The one at the top of the post is just at the end of the eclipse when the moon is just about uncover the sun. The flash or "diamond" effect is caused by the fact that the moon is not perfectly round and that flash is caused by the sun going through the canyon at the edge of the moon.

Here is a picture at the middle of the eclipse showing the full corona around the sun.

Here is another one showing a solar flare at the 1 o'clock  position. I didn't think the camera and telescope I used could actually see solar flares so this picture surpassed by wildest expectations. 

This last one is a wide angle view showing the eclipse. Its not exactly how it looked but you get a general idea and if you click on the photo and zoom in you can see some stars and planets if you know where to look...

...more stories to follow.

They ARE the Lying Bastards

Today I lead a ride the likes of which had not been seen before. It was so good that that people on the ride couldn't believe how good it was. In fact is was so good that more people showed up for this ride then the tour de francaise. Here is the route to show you how good it was.

We started in Frenchtown and headed over to the PA side of the Delaware where the roads were amazing. I even managed to close the road for first the 6 mile for the category 1 climb up to Lake Noximixion because I could. From there is was rolling hills and great scenery until we hit the town of Perkasie where we stopped at one of my primo rest stops where I got the most beautiful chocolate brownie you have ever seen.

After the rest stop we climbed the toughest hill of the day, much harder than that little Manayunk wall they have in Philadelphia. Some of the losers with me complained about how hard the hill was but I pulled them all up with me.

The ride then continued along the stupendous roads north of Lake Noximixion going past Greek temples and some of the best wellness centers in the country. I was riding so fast and hard that I was wearing the rest of the people out so I had to stop a second so they could rest and get some food to keep up with me.

I took an amazing detour along a gravel rode (Quarry Rd) with scenery that could not be believed but all these people could do is complain about how afraid they were about falling on the gravel SAD.

The last part of the ride was down the famous Red Circle of Death (Red Cliff Rd). It is an impossible steep downhill that few can handle but I lead everybody down safely back to the starting point.

Some people accuse me of being a lying bastard but is it the lamestream media (and my insane bike posse) that is creating that FAKE NEWS. They even accuse me of colluding with that commie Philly bike club on the ride today. Yes it is true that I met with them in the first weekend in May but it was a meeting about a charity ride. OK I got some route sheets at the meeting but there was no collusion.

The truth is if I was such a lying bastard why would people ever allow me to lead them on any ride.

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse

Its a strange thing that I don't remember the last time I had to negotiate a bridge out. For the last few years I have encountered a bridge out at least every 2nd or 3rd ride. Its not that the roads and bridges in NJ are getting any better, I just have been unlucky at encountering bridges that are out these past few months.

That changed today as Jack and I went out for a post PFW event ride on Sunday. On Arneytown Rd I saw the bridge out sign and knew we had to go for it. The bridge was still mostly intact so it was possible to get over it however the bridge crew did a good job of making it difficult.

They parked a large excavator on each side of the bridge with the shovel down to block the path. It would have stopped most people be we are professionals at this so with a little limbo Jack and I made it through the first excavator....

...and then over the second. From there it was on to Emily's Church where we found a couple of vultures drying their wings.

The past two weeks I have been keeping the rides local as I have been preparing for the zombie apocalypse (i.e. the total solar eclipse). I have been planning this trip for over a year. Seeing a total solar eclipse has been on my list of must do things for since going to a planetarium in high school. The reason that I have not tried to see one until now is that it required travel to some remote part of the world with only a 50% chance of actually seeing it. The one on August 21 is special for a couple reasons. First it is the first eclipse since 1979 that will be able to be seen in the US and second it is the first eclipse to go across the entire US since 1913. In order to see the eclipse you have to be in a 60 mile wide band that starts just south of Portland Oregon and ends in Charleston SC (Here is a map of the path). With an eclipse that spans the US is should be possible to find some where with clear skies to be able to see it but it takes a lot of planning and some luck.

In order to see the eclipse you have to be somewhere in the 60 mile wide band with clear skies so everything depends on the weather. As we all know weather reports are not very accurate and the difference between a partly cloudy sky and clear sky is not something meteorologists spend a lot of time trying to predict. There are some great sites that NOAA has and some astronomy organizations maintain that try to predict the cloud cover so I plan to use these to improve my chances at being at the right place. 

The other issues is that since this eclipse is in the US and has been well publicized there are going to be a lot of people traveling to see it. Every hotel in the path has been booked for the past 6 months and the roads leading to the big cities where it will pass over are going to be traffic jams of people. This is why if you are going to try an see this eclipse you will have to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. There will be millions of people following the best weather and popular cities to see the eclipse. You have to stay ahead of the crowd and plan for any possible problem or you will get eaten by the crowd and miss the eclipse. 

My plans are to fly to Denver the Friday before the eclipse and then head to where I think the weather will be perfectly clear. That will give me 2 and a half days to get in a place to see the eclipse. The weather in the north west especially east of Portland has the best chance of clear weather (76% vs 50% for Charleston). There are also less people north of Denver yet there are still a lot of good highways so I can move around the country quickly. The main problem is going to be finding a place to stay and places to eat. Because of the influx of people the hotels and restaurants will be overwhelmed. I may end up camping out and eating beef jerky from gas stations but as long as I get the see the eclipse that won't matter. 

For those of you not traveling to see the eclipse there will still be a partial eclipse seen from NJ so get your eclipse glasses or make a pin hole camera and enjoy the partial eclipse.

Assuming my plans work out I hope to share some good pictures and stories about the eclipse. That is assuming there isn't a sudden Sharknado that encircles the globe( as being shown on SYFY tonight)