Pictures 3 of 3 As the eclipse ends, effects less noticeable in the beginning show up: Sharp shadows return. During the full eclipse, there are not distinct shadows except looking through tree limbs and leaves. The shadow of tree leafs and limbs on the ground becomes an unexpected treat: The sun emerges as a narrow, crescent light. The short dimension becomes like a distant laser with sharp shadows. The long dimension rapidly become blurred. This brief, 10-20 second interval is what I came to see. Bob Wilson
LESSONS LEARNED Casino hotel comp rooms two nights - Located 100 miles from the path of total darkness, check-in the day before and use the local weather report to choose the best, cloud free areas. Motels in the eclipse covered areas had room rates of over $300 and some much, much higher. Free rooms and the ability to choose a cloud free region is a win-win. Just take a nap and leave very early in the morning to stress-free drive to the observation area just before sunrise. As far away from population centers - This avoids crowds so you can enjoy the eclipse without distractions. Ash Hill is nearly centered between Little Rock, Memphis, and Saint Louis. Crowds are thinner the further away and harder to reach. Remotest site in a valley - Everyone on the way in will be trying to make a buck off of the eclipse lookers. It will look like a State Fair arcade with lots of opportunity to buy marked up crap, crowds, parking fees, and 'comfort' food trailers. As you go further in the valley, you avoid the hucksters. Walmart or large mall parking lots - They have the parking area for a lot of cars and you're already away from the crowd. Although Walmart thought they could have an area to charge eclipse viewers, there was no crowd beyond the usual shoppers. So I could choose where I wanted to park to watch the eclipse. Best of all, clean bathrooms and groceries. Local fast DC chargers - In 2044, you' all will be driving electric cars. So before the eclipse, put a full charge on your car. After the eclipse is over, all fast DC chargers will be slammed by those who didn't first put on a full charge. Smart navigation App like Waze - A traffic aware, navigation system will identify faster, alternate routes. This will get you to your room quicker. Full Self Driving or something like it - Driving in the huge traffic jams can be stressful. Let the computer handle it and enjoy the ride back. Last bathroom break - All the ones on the way back are going to have lines and cleanliness issues. The next USA, total eclipse is 2044 when I'll be 94. Although this wasn't a perfect experience, I accomplished 90% of my goals. Next time: Make a light box for the binoculars or spotting scope. Using the eyepiece to the sun, it projects a safe to view, large but faint image. A light box makes it easy to see the full eclipse and corona. It'll have to be pointed and sometimes shifted but make sure it is otherwise hands free so you can take pictures. BTW, this can also be used to observe sun spots and both Mercury and Venus transiting the Sun. If anyone says something about your dogs going nuts, answer "No, they are used to me turning off and on room lights. Most of all, enjoy it! Bob Wilson
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. == 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 60ยข 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
Full unblocked sun may also cook lenses and prisms in your binocular's light path. This is not a trivial thing. == 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.
