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.