Eclipse plan

More photos from Bob that can never be unseen.

The funny shadows are always great and arguably best things about annular and partial eclipses. Great consolation prizes.

 

Now it's over and a secret plan can be revealed. Binocular revisions for the full sequence.

Seriously I could not post this because if not done correctly, complete permanent loss of vision is 100 % guaranteed. Read that back, aloud.

You can look at the sun with binoculars, see sunspots, whenever you want. The ocular lenses (NOT the eyepieces!) need to be covered with aluminum foil with needle holes (<1 mm) in center. You will need to practice making smallest possible holes. Then a complete set of covers with holes of larger sizes. Those are for eclipse lead in (and lead out) with 90% (or whatever) of solar disk blocked. During totality (ONLY) binoculars wide open can be used. But lacking ocular covers, binoculars cannot even be present at eclipse parties. Very dangerous weapons.

There are high density filters available for telescopes. 99.999% blockage (if I read correctly). But eclipses are dynamic events. Bino caps (not trademarked; no one would ever be foolish enough to manufacture this product liability nightmare). Swap thorugh sequence, during lead in and lead out. Run through sequence perfectly with DIY, and if one falls off it's bye bye eye.

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I did this for Costa Rica eclipse. Worked great.

 

more planning needed:
teslas leaving eclipse viewing in vermont couldn't find available chargers

60448157

 

That's the reason I took the Prius Prime instead of the Model 3. Didn't want to have to deal with all the other Telsas that would wanted to charge. In restrospective though, since I was in the first city within the totality and the closest to the first supercharger stop, I would have probably been ok to charge without waiting. But anyway, it had cost me just $9 in gas and about 60¢ in home charging. I was able to dose my EV mode pretty good, I came home with just 2% left in the battery. It was worth every penny

 

This part dampens my enthusiasm.

 

Full unblocked sun may also cook lenses and prisms in your binocular's light path. This is not a trivial thing.

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Y'all might not know

RED Digital Cinema | Professional Cameras

They make great digital video cameras for 'cinema world' and also rent them by the day. In sleepy Kunming few years ago I was in a Media gathering and actually touched Red cameras. Big thing for me.

Rent, aim at full sun, and it be cooked. Some Red renters have been compelled to pay full replacement cost.

Mentioned here only because doing things wrong is a big fail, and doing things right is ~ necessary.

 

So....
Mission accomplished!

I missed the corona show in '17 and so I took vaca this year to make up for that disadvantage.
I hold an advanced degree in autumnal storm evacuation and another one in post disaster mitigation, so I applied those lessons.

I took the Griswold Grand Canyon Tour approach:
Used surface roads with which I have extensive local knowledge and chose a county seat (Vernon) well off the 'beaten path' and below max totality.
As things turned out I had about an 80-minute ride to my viewing site.
I made sure that my truck had all of the essentials, including a full bag of gas, empty Gatorade bottle, water and snacks, a 2-metre radio with lots of repeaters pre-programmed, and all of the other 'usual stuff and things.' - Virtually none of which were needed.
I modified my plan somewhat by situating myself near a major artery for the exfiltration, and formed a core memory.
The weather was the only real gamble, because unlike some TV hosts that I can think of, I didn't need to be informed that clouds can (and mostly DO) block the sun from human eyes.
The weather turned out to be near ideal, and I already knew not to fumble-dork around with my camera during the critical 5-10 minutes.

Mostly I relaxed and enjoyed the experience.
My exfil went as planned and I was 'home' and dry in well under an hour.

Can't wait to do it again.....

 

Wait, exfil was > 20 minutes faster?

I followed the same route both ways ... it was completely unimpeded on the way to the site. On the way back, there was only maybe a mile of significant slowdown, and that's where my route crosses a major artery (in fact, jogs along it for about half a mile).

A bit farther east, crossing US-31 on an overpass, the view downward had made me glad I was not on US-31.

 

Yep.
Separate routes in and out.

I was able to use a road with a higher speed limit on the return trip.
I was speed limited both ways since my beloved home state spent a good portion of that Emergency Declaration money on LEO overtime.

 

I was more worried about traffic for the return trip, and I was more worried about the higher-speed-limit roads for traffic. The ones I crossed looked like mob scenes.