347 replies to this topic

[Lord Beowulf]

ClearDarkSky is looking better and better for a window opening up right around the eclipse!    We're at the bottom edge, but things are starting to look promising up through Dallas and Arkansas.  The observatory is prepped and cleaner than it's been in years!  See my blog post for more info!

 

Beo

 

 

 

[FirstSight]

Firm advice for those of you obsessed with getting photo/video captures of the eclipse:

- The very best photos / videos of a total solar eclipse are light-years short of capturing with the actual experience of witnessing it with your own eyes.  I can think of a perfect analogy, but can't say it because of CN's TOS, but surely you can figure it out for yourself.  

 

There will be an abundance of high-quality images or videos taken of the eclipse by others - let them do it so you can concentrate on witnessing one of nature's greatest, most profound spectacles with your own eyes and senses.

[grzesznypl]

Same here, looks like I'm heading to Plattsburgh as well, which is funny because this was my fist choice since it was closest and a straight shot up the NYS Thruway.

Most regrettably forecast changed a bit. I am starting to have second thoughts about Plattsburgh. I am thinking about Houlton, ME is much further East but it has best predicted forecast all of places. I feel sorry for the guys in the South after watching this video. Anything South of Cleveland looks at this point looks like wishful thinking.

Cleveland  
timeanddate.com - Drizzle. Cloudy.
weather.com - Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing.

Buffalo
timeanddate.com - Sprinkles late. Overcast.  
weather.com - Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower.
 
Plattsburgh, NY
timeanddate.com - Afternoon clouds.  
weather.com - Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds.

Houlton or Presque Isle, ME
timeanddate.com - Scattered clouds.
weather.com - Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon

Miramichi, CANADA
timeanddate.com - Partly cloudy.
weather.com - Partly cloudy skies

Edited by grzesznypl, 06 April 2024 - 04:19 PM.

[mikepier]

I just got up to Plattsburgh today. The forecast is hanging by a thread right now for Plattsburgh. High clouds supposed to roll in right around totality.

I'm committed here no matter what, just hoping for the best. 

[tommyboy]

Watertown is predicted to get near total cloud cover. Bugout planned for 0 dark hundred tomorrow.

[kathyastro]

I am hitting the road for New Brunswick in about 30 minutes.  The forecast looks good.

[grzesznypl]

Im about to start driving to Maine. Staying at Ellsworth and tomorrow will arrive at Houlton. Weather looks really, really good.

[JoeInMN]

Pretty sure this is my finalized eclipse rig. Two 60mm scopes. The red f/13 Frankenscope will have a Lunt Herschel wedge for direct sungazing during partiality, and the standard diagonal standing by with an eyepiece in it to quick-swap for totality. The yellow f/7 Milben will ride along doing the old-school projection for passersby. The Milben is on a mini ball-head for easy alignment with the red scope. The round sunshade is attached to the little post that once anchored that wonky altitude arm thingie that's always the first thing I pull off of a tube like this. The tripod will have a designated west-pointing leg instead of the usual north-pointing one, to keep it from interfering with the projection screen. I got this all assembled indoors yesterday to check that the mount could carry and balance it all well enough. I will take it out probably on Friday (when I am off from work) and make sure everything comes to focus. I haven't projected with the Milben or with that eyepiece before.

 

I will be driving a rented car from Minneapolis into southern Illinois. I hope to battle my way into Carbondale Monday morning. I originally planned for the Herschel scope to be an 80mm, but that would require a heavier mount, and I want to keep the system's weight down as much as possible, anticipating having to walk a mile or so from wherever I manage to find a parking spot. I realize I may not be able to get into Carbondale at all, and am considering various roadside locations that I will have time to get to elsewhere along the path.

 

I will probably take a few quick phone pics and vids through the scope, and have a camera on a tripod recording video through totality, but plan on futzing only minimally with photo stuff.

 

240401_eclipse_rig_001.jpg

Slight changes of plan... No Herschel wedge; front-end filter that I can just whip off at totality instead. Projection screen catches the wind and shakes the whole rig too much, so that scope is moved to a separate camera tripod.

 

Forecast for southern Illinois remains mostly sunny, and is short-range enough now for me to mostly trust it. Traffic will be the unknown variable.

[siav8]

I know this is a long-shot, but does anyone in/headed to Maine have an extra Celestron compatible counterweight?

[N-1]

Slight changes of plan... No Herschel wedge; front-end filter that I can just whip off at totality instead.

Smart move.

[barondla]

Living 10 minutes from Cape Girardeau, Mo. I'll definitely be photographing the event. 

Be safe,

barondla 

[JoeInMN]

Squeezed into one of the last marginally legal parking spots on the grass at a rest area a bit north of Benton. Sky clear apart from some bits of thin cirrus. Lucked out I guess.

Keeping an eye on that trooper over there... People parking cars in the trucker's spots might get towed. We've been assured that we're ok on the grass as long as we're alongside the road and not way off on the lawn.

[ehanes7612]

So how was the corona ? Compared to 2017

Edited by ehanes7612, 08 April 2024 - 02:35 PM.

[xiando]

I watched from just east of Cleveland.

 

I don't think we had "the optimal" positioning in its course, but close enough. The corona was extraordinary imo. Very (eye) visible ruby-colored gleam at the bottom of the corona for most of the maximum.

 

With filter glasses on, it wasn't quite as spectacular, maybe because it's a bit hazy, idk, but eye view, wow.\

 

PS> we lucked out. I thought for sure the clouds would persist, but they petered out mid morning. 

 

PPS> yes I know it's still happening... back outside I go.

 

EDIT: this image, snapshotted from a local news broadcast about 10 miles East of me, confirms what I saw

(re: red gleam from a solar flare)

Edited by xiando, 08 April 2024 - 07:54 PM.

[Danny Linguini]

Well, we had planned to go to NH this week for the eclipse and a little vacation, but then a new puppy came along in January, which pretty much put the kibosh on those plans. But we still had 90% totality here at home, so here’s a bit of what we caught from our back yard in RI. My wife managed to grab a few on her phone through solar glasses. Watched it all through my telescope, too, which was definitely worth the price of the solar filter. Only disappointment was the Celestron solar binoculars - neither of us could get them aligned in both eyes. And even when we could see an image in one side, it was barely bigger than what we could see in the solar glasses, which performed magnificently, btw. 
 

Edited by Danny Linguini, 08 April 2024 - 03:48 PM.

[APshooter]

 So how was the corona ? Compared to 2017

Not very wide visually.  Tri-lobed.  Nicer proms though.  Those 4 minutes flew by!

[kathyastro]

I just have one thing to say about the eclipse: WOW!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

A 99% partial eclipse is nothing at all like a total eclipse. As the last sliver of the Sun's disk was disappearing, you could see the Moon's shadow approaching. The already spooky light got dark, and we could see Venus and Jupiter. It wasn't completely dark, because the sky was light in the distance in all directions, just not where we were. The surrounding sky was a weird mauve colour.

The corona was a bright ring around the Sun/Moon, with a fainter extended corona especially above and to the right, just as the physicists had predicted. There was a bright spark at about the 7 o'clock position on the disk which I am guessing was a prominence.  Three minutes went by way too fast!

I tried to snap one of two pictures during totality, but I have no idea if they turned out. Probably not, I'm thinking. I took the advice of the experts and avoided fiddling with the technology. I am glad I spent almost the whole time just admiring it. For me, it was literally a once in a lifetime experience. Who knows if I'll be able to see the 2044 eclipse in Alberta?

 

[EDIT]

I did (almost) get a photo of totality.  The camera wasn't on a tracker, and I didn't want to hassle with it during totality.  I just clicked the shutter a couple of times and hoped for the best.  This is better than I thought I'd get.

Edited by kathyastro, 08 April 2024 - 07:05 PM.

[Lord Beowulf]

So I need to take new calibration frames for the camera settings I used here, but the clouds parted just enough during totality and I got enough filtered frames that I should be able to put together a reasonable poster of frames.  Looking at these raw frames, I realize I should have turned the gain down completely and just taken longer exposures (these were 0.002-0.006 seconds) but I was trying to avoid atmospherics, and my test frames for the Sun looked fine.  It's just at totality and with the clouds/haze, the images are noisier than they needed to be.

 

 

Beo

[bladerunner6]

They found us clear skies on the Discovery Princess. The clouds that were there did not interfere.

It was wonderful. As others have noted the prominences were amazing and beautiful. At least one was visible with the naked eye.

[JoeInMN]

Smart move.

I thought so too... As it worked out, the filter (homemade) didn't exactly "whip" off; it fit so snugly that I had to work it a bit to get it off, and in the process the telescope shifted, and I spent a longer moment than I'd planned finding the now-eclipsed sun again. The diagonal swap also would have put a lower-power eyepiece in for the corona. It worked out OK, though; beautiful view of prominences.

 

I don't think I got much of anything pic-wise. I'll have to go through the SD card when I get home.

[flappah]

I have been planning for this eclipse for literally 10 years only to cancel it about a year ago.I did cancel it though since we had been planning on making it an extended trip to the US, going to Waco, TX to see the eclipse and then drive all the way to ex-neighbours of us that now live in Clarksville, VA. We were going to take the dog with us along with all the equipment I could carry (two DSLR's, tripods, lenses, polar tracker et cetera). It turned out to be a problem to get the dog on the plane and the little one is really a nervous one so I decided to go to Spain in '26 and '27 instead. That way I can throw all the gear back in the car along with the dog on the backseat and be done with it. I got a bit melancholy though yesterday reading/watching everyone's experiences/videos. 

[grzesznypl]

I have been planning for this eclipse for literally 10 years only to cancel it about a year ago.I did cancel it though since we had been planning on making it an extended trip to the US, going to Waco, TX to see the eclipse and then drive all the way to ex-neighbours of us that now live in Clarksville, VA. We were going to take the dog with us along with all the equipment I could carry (two DSLR's, tripods, lenses, polar tracker et cetera). It turned out to be a problem to get the dog on the plane and the little one is really a nervous one so I decided to go to Spain in '26 and '27 instead. That way I can throw all the gear back in the car along with the dog on the backseat and be done with it. I got a bit melancholy though yesterday reading/watching everyone's experiences/videos. 

Man seeing this eclipse was such a profound moment that I am thinking about doing one of those ('26, '27). So maybe see you there.

[Lord Beowulf]

I'm finally making some progress post processing some of my images.  I actually have 6x the number of frames at totality, but all at different exposures.  I'll probably try to adjust them all to similar levels to create a smoother animation, but here's what I have so far!

 

 

And a few of the individual frames without the GIF artifacts...

 

 

 

Beo