This was my first total solar eclipse and while totality was an awesome experience, my fondest memories of April 8th 2024 will be of those after third contact.
Eclipse enthusiast friends of mine decided to arrange a group trip to Mazatlan, and after having missed out in 2017, I decided to join them. Most advice for first timers is to take it all in and forget the camera at home, but I'm a hobbyist photographer and I felt that if I was going to the effort and the expense to travel a thousand miles to see something, I should do my best to capture it. Without any experience in astrophotography, I fell down a long rabbit hole of forums and blogs and videos and books to prepare (shout out to this forum and Gordon Telepun for book and app!). In the months prior I was periodically practicing in my back yard and refining my process. In order to spend most of my time viewing, my primary rig was guided and scripted with Eclipse Orchestrator, but I also had a second camera I was shooting manually. Part of that second rig included video out to my iPad, something added at the behest of an experienced friend. While I've seen some far more impressive and sophisticated setups online, as well as some at our hotel in Mazatlan, I definitely had the most notable setup on the small hotel beach my friends had chosen as our viewing location.
Totality came and went far too quickly, and while I was dedicated to imaging all the way to C4, most people started milling around shortly after C3. Naturally, a few inquired as to if I'd gotten anything worthwhile, and being curious myself, I pulled up some shots to view on the iPad. My images aren't extraordinary by any means, but even through the clouds I captured some nice detail of the prominences and Baily's Beads. After a few gasps and excited shouts for loved ones to come on over, I quickly drew quite a crowd. Over the next 30 minutes or so, even as I was still imaging the final partial phases, I got to share what I'd captured with dozens of thrilled eclipse viewers.
Typically I'm pretty bad about turn around time with my photos, so it's usually a while before I get any feedback on my efforts. That was very much not the case on Eclipse day. In between my scheduled shots I'd bring up random sequences from totality and explore them with whoever was over my shoulder. People would gasp when I'd bring up 100% crops of the prominences in particular. I realized that my photos represented the first opportunity for these folks to get a better view and understanding of what they'd just witnessed. I ended up with a bilingual running commentary as I was scrolling through different sequences and disappointed groans when I'd stop the viewing to take another shot. People were leaning in to take pictures of my iPad, asking where I'd be posting my shots, and offering their thanks for giving them context for what they'd just seen. It was one of the most rewarding experience I've ever had with my photography and a testament to how a phenomenon like an eclipse can bring people together.
I was (and still am) pretty bummed that clouds put a very real ceiling on the quality of what I could capture, but even if everyone there found better images on Instagram on their way home, there was a brief moment where my efforts were meaningful to a handful of random people on a beach in Mexico. It was a surprisingly affecting experience, and one that brought an extra measure of joy to an already extraordinary event.
Who all has had similar experiences? Maybe some excited reactions to a look through a telescope?