Eclipse Day!

Posted on 2017-08-29 by Thor

The good weather held and we had zero clouds and negligible smoke for the eclipse.  Temperatures were climbing in the bright morning sun, but stalled and then dropped during the partial phases of the eclipse– enough that we donned our fleece jackets again!  Here are some shots of the event (click to enlarge).

After two years of reconnaissance to locate this specific place, I claimed it by inventing an official-looking tag.
A view of the Stinking Springs trailhead parking lot and our staked out section on the edge of the Snake River canyon.
One of my two sun-tracking cameras. This one is on a telescope and driven by an automated script from the laptop.
My other camera. The wood triangle is a template for the tripod which was polar-aligned the night before, then the template staked in place. On eclipse day the tripod feet were fit into their sockets and the tracking motor was able to keep the sun centered in the frame for almost the entire eclipse time.
Eric brought his video and sound recording equipment. I hope to see his video, as my GoPro ran out of juice just before totality.
Eric and I discuss exposure strategies.
Partial eclpse viewing. Some members of the group hiked out and viewed from nearby hilltops.
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Binoculars, equipped with solar filters on their objective lenses.
Exactly halfway between C1 and C2.
Rich discovers a source of pinholes.
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Sixty seconds to totality.
C2
Mid-eclipse view of the corona.
My HDR composite spanning 14 stops of exposure and showing some of the structure in the corona.
A shot at third contact showing some prominences and the emergence of two “beads”
Immediately after third contact, the diamond ring effect. This was a stunning end to two minutes of experiencing the world with a bizzare hole in the sky!

Celebrating the day appropriately.
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