251 replies to this topic

[~RA~]

Well, that was a nail-biter.

 

~ RA

[Dispatch from Lake Whitney State Park, central Texas]

[Messierthanwhat]

We decided on Llano, TX, months ago. (Spanish for "plain," pronounced "Yawn'-oh" in Spanish, but the locals seem to say "Lane'-oh.") We stuck to Llano even though the cloud forecasts were horrible, and are glad we did. We had clumps of heavy clouds most of the morning before first contact. But as first contact approached, the clumps of clouds gradually separated, so  the sun was visible at first for a minute, then two at a time. That continued until all of a sudden, about a minute before totality, we had a very clear view for about 40 degrees in all directions from the sun. Totality (4:22) was completely visible, and awesome.

 

I'd been tracking the city's preparations on their website, and "hospitable" doesn't begin to describe them. Parking in a roped-off field at their Badu Park was just $5 and included as many sets of eclipse glasses as you wanted.   They were way over-prepared. At said Badu Park, the parking lot was about half-empty, and they had about ten times more porta-potties than anyone actually used. They had about 15 porta-potties in a park across the river, but I didn't see a single soul over there. Departing traffic headed in the direction of Austin was slow, but I could only tell that by seeing the line of cars on the bridge going south over the Llano River. That included traffic from places farther north. Departing to the west, toward San Angelo, traffic was a bit heavier than we'd seen when scouting the day before, but moved easily at sustained speeds of 65-75MPH.

[Moravianus]

Last minute drive back from Del Rio to rest stop before Brackettville paid back but what a nail biter: sky opened just for the total eclipse. Photo is from iPhone15 5x zoom with filter, but 80mm refractor showed al the prominence details etc.

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Edited by Moravianus, 08 April 2024 - 09:40 PM.

[cpman]

I had a bunch of folks come visit me in Austin for this eclipse, and, seeing the weather, we left at about 7 this morning to drive to northeast Texas for the eclipse. Once we got to Corsicana, we used a satellite feed to try and navigate to a town where there would be a gap in the clouds real-time and ended up in Winnsboro. The effort was worth it! We had clear skies for totality with just a tiny hint of very slight haze.

The naked eye prominences were a huge difference from 2017. I also brought some binoculars for totality, which was great, too.

We were also surprised at how minimal the traffic seemed to be — we encountered no traffic issues aside from heavy rain either going there or coming back. I think the fact that we travelled parallel to and within the path of totality probably helped with this.

[Galaxy Gazer]

I got to see it! I drove from Houston area to Waco. I left around 9am this morning, and traffic was pretty good. There were just two delays (about 10 or 15 minutes each) in two towns (Hearne and Calvert) but I believe traffic is usually pretty heavy there anyway. I was seeing more and more blue sky as the morning went on, which was really encouraging considering what the forecasts had shown!

 

This was my first Total Solar Eclipse. Clouds kept coming and going nearing totality. It started to get really interesting a minute or so before totality. That casting the whole world into a low contrast filter kind of thing I had heard about...YEAH!...The air was really thick-hazy like, and it was like someone dimmed the lights oustide pretty swiftly. Then there it was: a blacked out sun with the corona, chromosphere and solar prominences just sitting there in the sky. It was mesmerizing. Venus and Jupiter were out and so bright. The sun was eerie and cryptic but so fascinating. Clouds came in for a couple minutes. But then they left. But the area I was in had about four minutes of totality, so I got to see totality for about a minute at the beginning and about a minute at the end. I saw the Diamond Ring beginning at the end, so I looked away and put my glasses back on (I had kind of missed the Diamond Ring and Bailey's Beads at the beginning amid all the excitement). Wow. I am in awe of God's handiwork. And I'm so glad He let me enjoy this. The drive back was pretty smoothe too, plus the afterglow!

Edited by Galaxy Gazer, 08 April 2024 - 09:37 PM.

[sandman1330]

I was one of the many in Austin who thought I was dead in the water. I flew here with my pregnant wife, 6-month old baby, and 3-yr old son. I'd told her I'd likely be getting in the car and driving with our son day-of to get to clearer skies and she said she'd stay behind with the baby because she didn't want to spend hours in the car. Well, this morning when push came to shove and we were getting ready to leave, she said screw it and all four of us got in the car and started driving north towards Waco. Stopped in Temple to evaluate forecasts around 9:30a and made the decision to go northwest from there to Gatesville. We set up in the Walmart parking lot with probably 60 other viewers and had mostly nothing but thin, wispy high-level clouds and got 4:15 of the 4:28 totality (a low level cloud blocked it for about 15 seconds and that was it). Unforgettable experience and my wife is very glad she made the decision to come with us.

Gatesville was my original plan! I abandoned it a couple days ago in favour of sulphur springs. Cost me a non refundable hotel room too.

 

Then Sulphur Springs (plan B) looked bad this morning, so we went for de Queen (plan C), which also had an iffy forecast. On arrival it was blanketed in low cloud… so we went with plan D, and kept driving the totality path northeast until we broke out of cloud. We were prepared to go as far as Russellville, which is where we ended up after 5hrs driving. It was getting close to time so we set up in the first patch of grass we could find, well away from any of the festivities. Aside from a tiny patch of high cirrus, we had glorious conditions! Amazing experience.

 

Then we had to drive back to Houston, over 8hrs. Arrived bagged but happy.

 

So now that I know my plan A for Gatesville would have worked out, anyone go to sulphur springs or de queen? Curious how plans b and c might have played out?

[y0chang]

My original plan was to see it san Antonio,  but I changed last minute to north Dallas.   I met up with a friend and we headed east.  First to Paris tx, but then even farther out to Clarksville Texas.  We set up on a lakeside park.We saw totality but it was broken up by clouds.  Even though the 2017 experience was better for me since it was my first,  it was still the most memorable today.

[Brad Templeton]

My "Texas" experience was to cancel my flights (the airline forced me) and hotels in Texas and fly to NYC, then drive up to Cowansville, Quebec.   It was very good there and most of the weather models said it would be fine, but 2 said clouds could arrive at exactly eclipse time.    Having gone this far we drove 60km to the west to Magog, outside of Sherbrooke at another hotel that was available.  Saw it all with zero clouds, though a few cirrus arrived after totality, the ones we were afraid of.     Back in Cowansville, they had a good eclipse with just some very light cirrus.   Light cirrus can make the visual eclipse more dramatic, but they will remove perfection from a photograph series.    Glad to see so many in Texas still saw it.   On the satellite photo there was a long band of clouds from Mexico to Ontario, but with holes that blessed many people but cursed a few.

[Cajundaddy]

How did things end up in Del Rio?

We stayed in Del Rio from 8-10am under a heavy marine layer, no sun, no shadows, and a light mist.  It looked like doomsville so we packed up and headed to Garner SP which was our original plan and had improving cloud predictions.  It turned out pretty well with totality quite visible between mostly cloudy skies.
 

In the end the cloud forecasts were all over the map and poorly predicted the final result.  For most who live in TX this is no surprise as spring weather is highly unpredictable. All is well that ends well and the celebratory BBQ was quite a feast.

Edited by Cajundaddy, 10 April 2024 - 08:44 AM.

[SpaceConqueror3]

I'm flying into OK City. Original plan was to view the eclipse around Clarksville, TX but weather doesn't look promising (at the moment.)

 

I just checked the NWS 7 day forecast. It's showing mostly sunny in Russellville, Arkansas for Apr 8 which sounds promising and isn't that far from my original plan. So I might be traveling to northern AR or southern MO. Never been to Arkansas so that's something.

My original plan back last September was to fly to OK City from Seattle and go the SE corner of OK but I waited too long and it got too expensive. About a month and half ago, I made reservations to fly to Toronto from Vancouver, B.C. We drove down to Lake Erie at Port Rowan and the clouds parted just in time for a near perfect view of it. You get lucky sometimes....

[timmywampus]

Still 60 miles from home. This trip seems like it will never end. 

[BRCoz]

With all the cloud forecasts calling for clouds,  I ended up at Brady, Tx and was parked in a Walmart parking with lots and lots of watchers.   The clouds were around in patches.  Just before Totality the clouds moved away.  This time I took photos and a quick look I think I did ok.  I'll be downloading them tomorrow.  Had a 10+ hour drive back home.

[KevinFH]

FYI, the Trinity site is only open on two days a year, and the April open house date for 2024 has been cancelled already.

Ooh.  Did not know!  thanks.

VLA is a for sure.  It should have been on

 

So I went and scouted out my campsite and primary viewing location yesterday. On the way back I thought I should warn about traffic here again. Where I'm going to be is several miles west of Hillsboro. The center line will cross I-35 a couple of miles south of Hillsboro. Where I got back on to I-35 to head north is just south of town and maybe a mile north of the cross over point. When I got on the freeway this is what the southbound lanes looked like. When I got into Hillsboro going southbound a few hours earlier traffic was heavy but wasn't backed up like this. It's possible there was something I wasn't aware of further down the road to cause the back up but I don't think there was as I've seen it backed up like this more than once. Traffic flow along 35 on weekends tends to be heavier northbound at the start of the weekend, then heavier southbound at the end of the weekend. Where I took this was at the north end of Hillsboro. I don't know how far south it was backed up like this, but it started getting like this about a mile north of where the 35E-35W split is. Keep in mind this was a Sunday afternoon about 3:30, without anything special going on, without the influx of several thousand additional people. And Hillsboro is a fairly small town.

 

Additionally, if any of you will be traveling along I-35 I won't say there is a lot of radar monitoring of the speed limit in Alvarado, Grandview, and Georgetown. But I will say if you exceed the speed limit through these areas there is a heightened chance you will get the opportunity to meet a local LEO. Just sayin'.

I came thru Austin followed b y San Antonio.  I did not realize there is urban sprawl from one city to the other.  I camped at Bluebonnet Ford on I35 when my AC went out. 

I will avoid I35 and both cities most of the time from now on.

 the list.

[KevinFH]

766 total images.  5 or 6 keepers.  Clouds?  Nice sometimes.

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[ecuador]

I was one of the many in Austin who thought I was dead in the water. I flew here with my pregnant wife, 6-month old baby, and 3-yr old son. I'd told her I'd likely be getting in the car and driving with our son day-of to get to clearer skies and she said she'd stay behind with the baby because she didn't want to spend hours in the car. Well, this morning when push came to shove and we were getting ready to leave, she said screw it and all four of us got in the car and started driving north towards Waco. Stopped in Temple to evaluate forecasts around 9:30a and made the decision to go northwest from there to Gatesville. We set up in the Walmart parking lot with probably 60 other viewers and had mostly nothing but thin, wispy high-level clouds and got 4:15 of the 4:28 totality (a low level cloud blocked it for about 15 seconds and that was it). Unforgettable experience and my wife is very glad she made the decision to come with us.

I ended up at Gatesville too. Set off at 8 from Austin, heading either to Hillboro or Gatesville (2 specific locations I had marked), when it was time to choose the latter seemed to be giving better chances. Went to a ranch outside Gatesville and, yes, it was glorious, despite clouds spoiling the brackets during totality - they do give dramatic single frames though. The heavier clouds came back as totality ended. See you in Spain perhaps? I flew from the UK, so it will possibly be a drive south for me in 2026.

[Katharine]

In Sulphur Springs we had clouds off and on... wasn't a big deal during partial phase since everyone was just looking periodically anyway.  Totality had light clouds that were easy to see through.  Sky was perfectly clear right after totality, lol.

 

And a shoutout goes to the Hampton Inn in Sulphur Springs, which had a reasonable rate and honored it.  My room also seemed clean, the breakfast was good, the staff seemed nice.  Would definitely recommend.

[jrussell]

My plan had been Lake Whitney, but Friday night since the forecast wasn't looking great I cancelled my campsite and started looking more seriously at Arkansas. I found a campsite at Jefferson Ridge on Dierks Lake about 40 east of DeQueen. Early morning there was high cirrus clouds, but around 9:30 heavy low clouds moved in. Occasionally there was enough of a break the sun shone through but for the most part it was solid. Was trying to decide whether to head north since I'd already broken everything down and loaded up except for the telescope and a few other things. Finally got in the truck and found a weather report on the radio which said mostly cloudy starting about noon so I held my ground. Around noon the sun kept peeking through the clouds, and it stayed that way until about 1:20 when the clouds mostly broke apart. Ended up with a solid layer of high thin clouds through totality. By about 2 it started clouding over more heavily again so it worked out perfectly.

[nebula24x]

I went to mckinney TX (ne dallas). Originally just going to be me and my son. I hate driving through the Dallas metro so mckinney had good amount in totality and easier drive for me from OKC metro (turn at Gainesville and Sherman).

Wasn't sure about the day seeing forecasts night before and in the morning. Didn't see anywhere to reasonable drive without cloud cover. Ended up staying and one of my friends brother lived there and they invited us over.

Clouds started to weaken as eclipse started. More blue skies poking out. During eclipse only had a few times clouds too thick to see. Sort of neat seeing the clouds add texture/whiskers to the eclipse. Totality was perfect with no clouds. And of course clouds all gone afterwards for a while. Lol.

Had gone to Santa fe for the annular ring of fire last year. This was 1st time seeing totality. Definitely understand the difference that totality makes. Even when watching and the instant a speck of the sun poked out had to have glasses and the view went from totalitys ring back to normal eclipse view again.

Well worth it for just a few hours of driving.

Wife got to come to as her work trip got canceled.

 

Didn't take pics. Just enjoyed it.

Edited by nebula24x, 11 April 2024 - 03:25 PM.

[zman2100]

I ended up at Gatesville too. Set off at 8 from Austin, heading either to Hillboro or Gatesville (2 specific locations I had marked), when it was time to choose the latter seemed to be giving better chances. Went to a ranch outside Gatesville and, yes, it was glorious, despite clouds spoiling the brackets during totality - they do give dramatic single frames though. The heavier clouds came back as totality ended. See you in Spain perhaps? I flew from the UK, so it will possibly be a drive south for me in 2026.

Nice. All-in-all I was quite pleased with Gatesville, especially since the day before I was starting to think I wouldn't see anything. Spain may be a tough sell with a 5-yr old, 2.5-yr old, and 1.5-yr old...

[Caver]

My eclipse story.
I know several of you will want the 'techie' stuff, so I'll get that out of the way first
My equipment as seen in the pic with the fat old phart standing there...
Camera: Canon Ra DSLR
Lens: 300mm zoom & 2x teleconvertor
Mount: Star Adventurer star tracker
Filter: Thousand Oaks Optical mylar solar filter
ISO: 400
Partial phase exposures: 3 stop bracketed, 3 shots, every 1 minute.
Total phase exposures: continuous loop from 1/1000 sec to 1 sec. (about 10 stops bracketed)
Camera exposures controlled by SETnC software on Windows laptop.
Cell Phone running 'Eclipse Timer' software making audio announcements for various eclipse phases. (Filter/glasses reminders...etc)
Location: Belton TX. 4 minutes of totality.

Pretty much every article or video I saw while preparing for this eclipse said...'If this is your first eclipse, DON'T photograph it! Enjoy it with your actual eyes!'  That was my goal to have the photos as automated as possible so I could watch.  As usual...some of it worked...some of it didn't.

OK, technical stuff done...Eclipse day didn't start off well.  Skies were solid overcast. Forecasts still called for partly/mostly cloudy, so I had hope for breaks. By 10:30 or so, the clouds started to break up a bit, so I began setting up equipment. The goal was to start the exposures at first contact, and record the whole eclipse and create a movie like I did for the Annular eclipse last October.

Well...Between all the clouds and a recalcitrant computer, we were halfway through the partial phase, leading up to totality before I got the camera running.

As I set back to watch, it became obvious we were going to be seeing the eclipse through breaks in the clouds. Not the most desirable conditions, but a lot better than it looked a few hours previous. This was going to play havoc with my pictures...but I decided 'to heck with it' I'll get what I get!

My phone was keeping us advised with announcements...5 minutes to 3rd contact...etc. My camera was happily clicking away and totality was approaching.
In the last couple of minutes before totality, it began to get noticeably darker, but still daytime.

I honestly don't recall seeing much baileys beads or diamond ring going into totality, the clouds were partially obscuring things. I pulled my camera filter and it suddenly was night!
As the sun emerged from behind the clouds we were in full totality!  I was completely and utterly mesmerized! This was one of the coolest and most awe inspiring things I have ever seen in my life!
I just sat there gawking.  The next thing I remember is hearing my phone announce "Maximum Eclipse"! The I remembered to start looking at all the phenomena that goes on...the shadows, the 360 degree sunset. It especially impressed me how dark it got.  I've been lucky enough to experience 2 Annular total eclipses...98% obscured. They got noticeably dark, but still would be considered 'daytime'.  This thing was most definitely 'night'. The difference between a 98% eclipse and 100% eclipse is literally day/night. I can now say that with first hand experience!

I think the passing clouds actually added to the experience. It really was surreal to see the eclipsed sun between the passing clouds.

My phone announced the coming end of totality, so I prepared for Baileys beads and the Diamond ring, but a cloud obscured the sun just as they began. Then I saw the edge of the moons shadow approaching from the SW. It was like someone pulling a shade open...the shadow was a straight line moving right to left above us in the clouds and things got brighter.
I replaced the solar filter on my camera.  It was still taking pics, so it was still going. I checked the camera display and everything was still tracking.
My hopes for enough pics for a movie weren't too good, but I let the camera run till last contact.

After the eclipse, the weather deteriorated significantly. Severe weather was in the forecast.  As it turns out, the area got over 11 inches of rain in the next 24 hours.  I think I drove through a good part of it the next morning. After an hour or two on the road, I broke through the front and had a dry remainder of the trip home.

The pics did not come out as planned, but I am quite happy with a couple of them.  I decided to embrace the clouds as an 'artistic' addition to them and go with that!

The next good eclipse in North America is in 2045. Those of you that will be around, plan to go up to Colorado Springs, Co. and see a total solar eclipse. I assure you it is a FANTASTIC experience!

Edited by Caver, 11 April 2024 - 04:52 PM.

[BRCoz]

With all the cloud forecasts calling for clouds,  I ended up at Brady, Tx and was parked in a Walmart parking with lots and lots of watchers.   The clouds were around in patches.  Just before Totality the clouds moved away.  This time I took photos and a quick look I think I did ok.  I'll be downloading them tomorrow.  Had a 10+ hour drive back home.

Here is some photos.  I have many more to look at I just saved a few.  

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[Cajundaddy]

Well, we are home again.  Two weeks, 3600 miles across 6 states, several national park visits along the way, 3 rattlesnake’s observed, lots of deer and pronghorn antelope, and Eclipse 2024 was a success.  We dodged enough clouds to get a good look and though my scope mount failed resulting in no pics, we had a grand adventure.  

Thank you Texas!

[The Raptor]

New fgrum member here.  We drove from La Crescenta, CA (suburb of LA) to Dallas, almost 3,000 miles round trip, and stayed with friends in Frosco (suburb of Dallas) to see the eclipse through my 8" Meade LX200.  A lot of driving, but well worth it.  A few patchy clouds, but totality was completely clear.  Our 10th solar eclipse (Roundup, MT; Cabo San Lucas; Catalina Island, CA; Aruba; Munich; Puerto Vallarta; St. George, UT; Salem, OR; Richfield, UT; and Frisco, TX).

Edited by The Raptor, 14 April 2024 - 06:49 PM.

[Bigred77]

this was my first total eclipse to ever see in person,  and wow I tell you what, I totally understand why so many people chase them around

 

We ended up with a group of 18 people from Holland watching with us.  The older gentleman of their group (who seemed to be the 'leader') told us this was his 9th total eclipse to see in person.

His youtube channel has a video of seeing one while standing on top of the great wall of China.  How cool would that be?

[timmywampus]

I write up reports for my coworkers after every eclipse chase, i took screenshots of it and pasted below.