Solar Eclipse Expedition
An
equipment-heavy road trip to see the eclipse
20170731-1126
Final Update:
20171126Back to Bill Caid's Home Page.
Solar flares visible at the end of totality witnessed on the Snake River in Idaho using Lunt 60mm solar telescope.
Sony A7RM2: 0.5 sec, ISO 200, 500mm with 2x Barlow lens (crop)
All photos copyright, Bill Caid 2017. All rights reserved.
The Trip
Solar
eclipses, where the moon blocks the sun, are not that rare,
but it IS rare when they happen where you can actually see them. The
last eclipse that was visible in proximity to the U.S. was
in Baja California, MX in 1991. The 2017 eclipse
will be visible from
a wide
variety of places in North America from Oregon to
South Carolina. I have always been interested in
astronomy so when I heard that the eclipse was
coming to North
America, we started making plans. Generally
speaking, hotel rooms along the path of totality
have
been sold
out for years (literally),
so we dismissed that idea immediately.
But,
having Thor (our Mercedes
1017A 4x4 camper) provided us with the
ability to go nearly anywhere the viewing
might be good. In preparation for
the event, I purchased a Lunt 60mm solar
telescope for taking photos of the
eclipse. I also purchased a
standard solar filter that
could be added to any telephoto lens
to allow direct photos of the
sun. As it
turns out, taking good
photos is quite difficult and
requires a
combination of the right equipment,
skill and no small amount of luck.
Our plan was to head north along the Pacific coast, then turn east in central Oregon and be somewhere in central Wyoming (near Moneta) for the actual event. While it is hard to see into the future for weather, our selected spot should likely provide a cloud-free viewpoint for the eclipse. As reality unfolded, we realized that getting to central Wyoming "in time" was hard, so we elected for Idaho along the Snake River.
Our plan was to head north along the Pacific coast, then turn east in central Oregon and be somewhere in central Wyoming (near Moneta) for the actual event. While it is hard to see into the future for weather, our selected spot should likely provide a cloud-free viewpoint for the eclipse. As reality unfolded, we realized that getting to central Wyoming "in time" was hard, so we elected for Idaho along the Snake River.
Tracking Our Location Via The SPOT
Some years ago, after a scary mechanical failure in the canyons and mesas of southern Utah, we decided that we need a better way to advertise our position and call for assistance if needed. Kathleen found out about the SPOT which is a GPS locator that transmits your coordinates via satellite so that others can see your location. The location is plotted on Google maps and a "bread crumb" feature is available for an additional fee. We have the enhanced service, so you can see our historical path back 50 updates or so. See our current location plotted on Google Maps in Real-Time via SPOT satellite geo-locator device. This page is "book-markable" and is updated approximately every 15 minutes, but may miss updates due to inability of our transmitter to reach the satellite. The communication is "open loop" so the device never knows if it's messages are actually going anywhere, it just keeps trying until the next update is available. If we are in a congested urban area with high buildings (like Manhattan) or in deep canyons, the position may not update. We try to send an "OK" message once a day just to let everyone know that we are, in fact, OK. Given that London as well as other remote areas has many obstacles (like mountains), it is not clear how well this capability will perform.Connecting and Contacting Us While on the Trip
Because of internet connectivity issues on a previous trip, we purchased a MiFi cell phone modem that allows us to connect nearly anywhere there is at least 3G service via cell phone (which is most of the cell phone service area available today). But, as we all know, cell phones are useful many places, but not everywhere has coverage, particularly in the remote areas of the country and outlying territories. Our phones and the modem are enabled daily so you may contact us, although it may take a few days for us to respond. But, we will respond. My email, spelled out, is "bcaid at yahoo dot com".Trip Details
The link
table below contains links to the photos and dialog for each
of the days of the expedition. This table will be
updated as the trip progresses. For this trip, the bulk
of the photos were shot with my Sony A7RM2 with either a
manual 35mm Voightlander lens, Sony 24-70 f/2.8, or Zeiss 18mm
f/2.8.
Conclusions and
Advice to Travelers
We were lucky to have
Thor at our disposal so we could travel where we wanted.
Planning for total eclipses starts years in advance (since
they can be predicted with high accuracy). The next
eclipse visible from the U.S. is 2024 so you have plenty of
time to get prepared.Astrophotography requires good equipment and a relatively high degree of skills as well as practice. Taking photos of the sun requires solar filters for both cameras and eyes. Never look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse. Always insure that the filter is securely attached to any lens use to look at the sun. Safety first because blindness is the consequence for a mistake. Putting a telephoto lens on your camera and pointing it at the sun without an adequate filter will result in camera damage, lens damage or both.
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Copyright Bill Caid 2017