Rev. 2024 MAY 02
NOVAC members overall had great success at the total solar eclipse on 8 April 2024.
92 NOVAC members have posted eclipse results ranging from less than a line to more than a page. They have told of great success and of heartbreak. They have submitted over 100 images – mostly of the Sun, but also of their setups and surroundings and people. To those who attempted to see totality but missed it, I hope you had otherwise worthwhile trips.
I’ve collected their messages here with links to their images (and a few videos) which reside on Google Drive. Currently, the Drive folder contains the images as submitted (format & size). I may revise some overly large image files to more reasonable jpgs. A few messages include links to images posted elsewhere.
All member images submitted as attachments can be found on Google Drive here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16thgKTX8BQWJyzopqBbtgYQaQS0ABEwl?usp=sharing
Please respect the ownership of these images. If you want to use one, ask permission from the member who created it.
A map showing where members observed the eclipse is here https://maps.app.goo.gl/wvdRwyTzP4142ejw9
Thanks to all who submitted, congratulations to everyone who attempted to be in the path of totality, and good luck to all who are now bona fide eclipse-chasers.
Alan Goldberg
🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸 🔾 🖸
John Bacha
jbacha17@gmail.com Thu, Apr 11 at 7:21 PM
I went to Buffalo NY in the hopes of seeing the eclipse but the cloud cover was terrible and was very disappointing. But I was able to get one picture during a break in the clouds and after working on it with a couple different types of photo editing software I was able to get a fairly decent image.
John
John’s partial phase image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-oPz2WmFB81DlCUvkSnjk_LPY_zZkEkF/view?usp=drive_link
Mark S. Baker
marks.baker1@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 11:52 PM
Alan; my wife children and I landed in Silva, Missouri at our campground Samual A.Baker/Otahki Lake KOA Friday April 5th. Paying very close attention to the forecast all weekend. Our plan B was to base camp here then travel to where ever we needed to find clear skies on the 8th. My mother, two brothers and a sister in law joined us on Sunday.
We had clear skies on Monday for the eclipse which I am challenged to find proper words for except it was Awesome! I was able to capture the entire event in time-lapse with my DSLR and a Skywatcher mount. We viewed it through my 127mm ES on an AVX mount. I left my iOptron counterweights at home so my imaging plans had to be adjusted. Still here chilling after most of my family went back to Virginia. Spotty cell phone and no WiFi so no pics.
Thank You
Mark S. Baker
Jeff Ball
jeffballphoto@gmail.com Sat, Apr 27 at 7:48 AM
Totality at Yellowwood Presentations
Good morning NOVAC,
Why Yellowwood?
You meet the nicest folks in astronomy, and in this case at the Almost Heaven Star Party just last year. I met Tami and Dan from Indiana and we immediately began discussing eclipse locations. They were both very familiar with the backcountry of Indiana and in the days leading up to to the eclipse, weather in Indiana was as good as anywhere.
So, thanks to NOVAC and AHSP for bringing me together with this great couple and providing a wonderful eclipse viewing experience.
My images and video are now live and can be accessed a couple of different ways.
Please view the highest resolution possible up to 4k. The video highlights are 120fps capture of Bailey's Beads.
Link to my blog with stills and YouTube video.
https://www.earthandskyphoto.com/imported-20091124163944
Youtube direct link.
Hope to see many of you at Spruce in a couple of weeks.
Clear skies.
--
Sincerely,
Jeff Ball
Wed, Apr 10 at 7:03 AM
Hello Alan.
Thanks for your work on the eclipse. So glad you had great viewing. We had successful views and imaging at Yellowwood State Forest near Nashville, IN. Met up with a friend I met at AHSP.
A lot of data to work through. Much more to come. Thanks and have a great day.
Sincerely,
Jeff Ball
Teri Ballou
tlballou@mac.com Tue, Apr 9 at 3:45 PM
The eclipse was great from Greenwood, Indiana (just south of Indianapolis.) Which was nice, considering we rolled the dice and family won out over higher historic “chances” of fewer clouds. You just never know!
The prominence was beautiful, and the corona, as Guy mentions below, was very different than in 2017. Much smaller, and more uniform all around. We put it down to the high wispy clouds. But Guy says that was predicted. Can you explain? Thanks.
All in all, a fantastic day sharing views through the various filtered and non- filtered binoculars we took.
Teri
Dave Bartlett
hikingmonkweb@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 2:47 PM
Hi Alan. We originally planned on Erie, PA, but ended up just south of Cleveland in Strongsville, OH. We had some high light clouds but definitely successful. Captured a few pictures with my Dwarf 2 telescope.
Susan Bender
mizar456@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 6:48 PM
I flew to Austin, Texas, to be with Donna and Fred Blosser. We drove to Concam, in the southwestern hill country. We knew the weather was iffy. We were joined by Donna and Fred's daughter, her husband and their toddler.
Although we missed totality, we did see about 90% coverage, sunset, darkness (quite dark) and all that goes with it. We were pleased!
Susan Bender
Steve Binari
sbin.email@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 8:26 PM
Alan,
I was in the path of totality at Dayton OH. Viewing was wonderful. Had amazing views of the major prominence through a C11 telescope. I did some afocal photography.
Steve
Darwin Bingham
dbbingham@me.com Sat, Apr 13 at 3:44 PM
Here’s my first draft - I’ve got a few more tricks (but not today) to try to bring out some more detail of the structure of the corona.
The details:
I was observing with some of my family north of Sunbury OH (think Columbus, then go north on I-71, then east on US-36/37 in Delaware county.)
We had about 2 minutes of totality - not necessarily the best location, but I had just cancelled an expensive trip to Texas - and I had a place to stay, and restrooms, and no traffic etc. vs. staying home and watching a partial eclipse.
We had some thin cirrus clouds to contend with. And then it got interesting:
My mount (a Star Adventurer GTi - tracked beautifully during the pre-partial time, and then during the partials, but about 2 minutes to totality pretty much stopped working.
It seems the iPhone App that was controlling everything just started spinning. Not wanting to spend all of totality just tinkering with technology, I literally took matters into my own hands - I just forced pointed by hand the camera to as near to the center as I could get and shot a burst of 9 exposures, 1 EV apart: 1/250 to 1 sec. I did this a couple of times, I’ll see if I did get any diamond rings, etc.
Midge Bonzon
midgebonzon@yahoo.com Fri, Apr 12 at 3:27 PM
Kept our plans for Texas and watched the peek-a-boo eclipse through the clouds at Garner State Park. Beautiful, atmospheric and kind of spooky!
Midge
Guy Brandenburg
gfbrandenburg@yahoo.com Tue, Apr 9 at 5:56 AM
The eclipse as seen from Pittsburg, New Hampshire next to a snow- and ice-covered lake with naked eyes, a home made dob, and solar shades was great. The prominences and sunspots were also great. The corona, as predicted, was more of a fuzzy blob rather than the angel wings it resembled in 2017 or 1994. The weather was warm and perfect, too.
Driving back from there to a friend’s place in Concord NH took a full 11 hours: 6:15 pm to 5:15 am. Much of that time, the traffic was not moving at all — there are only a few ways to get from northern NH (right next to Quebec) to points south, and they were all filled with cars belonging to eclipse chasers like us.
Guy Brandenburg
Tue, Apr 9 at 5:59 AM
Great! The prominences were indeed amazing. The corona was not as dramatic as in 2017. The traffic afterwards, even though I took my time in disassembling my dob and having dinner at a local restaurant, was also amazing. From Pittsburg NH to Concord NH took us eleven hours!
Guy
Robert Bunge
bbunge@ladyandtramp.com Tue, Apr 9 at 9:26 PM
Call it what you may, but nine months ago, I looked at the data and given various travel limitations, found a hotel in Sandusky, Ohio. Google map image suggested some grass to set up right off the parking lot. We drove out Sunday; I was prepped to check the satellite images on the NOAA/NESDIS/STAR website at 6am to think about driving. After checking and reading the NWS forecast discussions for northern Ohio (Cleveland WFO) and western/central Ohio (Wilmington WFO), I rolled over and went back to sleep.
As planned months before, we set up about Noon, just feet from our hotel room door. By the start of the eclipse, there were about a dozen people hanging around, many staff from two nearby restaurants who came over as we set up. Expecting something of sort, we passed out glasses. There were also three gentleman who were in town to fix a piece of gear at the local hospital, so their being in the path was all chance. Amazingly, one of them had been in the path in 2017 for the same reason. No planning, just plain luck.
We had thin clouds, but an amazing event and successful end to end. I really enjoyed hearing people off in the distance scream seconds before the shadow reached us. I passed up taking photos and instead showed our random guests views through two small telescopes and explained events as they unfolded.
We thought we were smart and waited until today to come home. I dunno about that. I-70 was a slow parking lot. More cars than usual combined with many construction zones made for a long drive home.
Bob
Thu, Apr 11 at 1:23 PM
I've used this homemade 42-year old 6-inch f/5 travel telescope to project the Sun many times, including this and two other total eclipses. The telescope is a simple Newtonian. I've never had heating problems with the eyepiece. I normally use older Vernonscope Brandon eyepieces (which are Plossls). I don't know that I would use a $600 TV eyepiece. :-) I'm also not tracking and leaving it on the Sun for more than a few minutes at a time. This telescope also has a lid that I can flip down to cover the mirror when I'm not projecting to keep the focused rays from going somewhere they shouldn't.
Projecting the white light Sun is my favorite thing to do at an event like this. I had set up in a hotel parking lot and in a few minutes had attracted about a dozen people, who could all see what was happening at once. They all had glasses, but it was fun to watch them look at the projection and ask what the little black dots were and then explain what a Sunspot is.
During totality, I just refocussed and everyone was able to see the prominence (which were really nice during this event!).
Clear Skies,
Bob
Bill Burton
burtonwc5@gmail.com Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:25 PM
Central Texas eclipse weather post-mortem
In the run-up to totality in Harker Heights just east of Killeen, we had broken midlevel cloud cover moving SW-NE underlain by thick, low-level, SE-NW moving clouds produced by solar-powered convective upwelling. These latter clouds would determine whether we saw totality or not--fortunately, as sunlight weakened just before totality they dissipated to yield enough clear views through the higher clouds that our party of 7, 5 of whom had never seen totality, could claim success. The solar prominence on the south limb was especially beautiful.
Bill Burton
Geoff Carstairs
gcarstairs@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 12:04 PM
The one and only quick photo we took with an iPhone at Newport VT - we only took one quick pic because we wanted to take it all in with our eyes.
Geoff’s image can be seen here https://drive.google.com/file/d/13xAuMv107QB3aO9jTdTpxfNry0SxXSnk/view?usp=drive_link
Jeffrey Caso
caso.jeff@gmail.com Thu, Apr 11 at 7:25 PM
... I left Cleveland Monday evening ~6pm and arrived back in Alexandria ~2:30am with only one stop. Have some great photos - the SeeStar was a real crowd pleaser in the group I observed with - and memories that will last...until the next one :) Looking forward to the next big event with the NOVAC group!
Travis Collins
travis@dreamingwell.com Tue, Apr 9 at 3:50 PM
Saw the eclipse from the shore of Lake Ontario northwest of Syracuse. Totally overcast. Did see the shadow of the moon approaching as it was cast on the clouds. Almost total darkness except the 360 sunset/sunrise.
Even had tickets to Dallas but canceled because of the weather forecast.
Bummer!
Travis Collins
Geoffrey Cook
geoffrey.cook@yahoo.com Tue, Apr 9 at 12:09 PM
Here are a half-dozen pictures taken with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera and a 400mm lens and a1.4x tele-extender, riding on an ioptron SkyGuider Pro tracker, and using a Thousand Oaks solar filter. The coronal rays and solar prominences are beautiful.
-Geoff
Geoffrey’s images can be found here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yfj9O2BNzw2OpOMlqzo7UQpAL0gSVUVd?usp=drive_link
Mike Coren
mdc_com1@yahoo.com Sat, Apr 27 at 7:58 AM
Hi Alan,
Catching up on my NOVAC email.
Just to correct the record, I cancelled my trip to Russellville, AR (medical and various other issues), and observed the 88% partial coverage from atop the "Purple" parking garage in Reston. I brought in about 35 pairs of cardboard eclipse glasses to work that day, and watched it with a bunch of my colleagues.
Thanks,
Mike Coren
Justin Dent
justin@dentdigital.com Wed, Apr 10 at 1:12 PM
My family and I observed our second successful eclipse at Valley Overlook, a lovely glamping spot within the park borders. After a striking but lonely eclipse outside of Jackson Hole WY in 2017, we had an intimate crowd of people from Michigan to Florida including families, friends of the camp owners, and a handful of children including my own to keep things lively. I shared views from my 8" SCT and was profusely thanked by everyone for helping to make it so special. We're already daydreaming about Iceland in 2026. Go team NOVAC!
Cheers,
Justin
Justin’s image can be seen here https://drive.google.com/file/d/19a3ZFVq0j2E0kQFv1NFsA9_vcImloTdG/view?usp=drive_link
George Doschek
gadoschek@aol.com Wed, Apr 10 at 10:59 PM
Alan,
Wardella, Elizabeth, Patrick, and I observed the eclipse from the Glidden House hotel lawn in Cleveland. It is at 1901 Ford Drive, Cleveland, 44106. You have made a great map.
George
George’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jhfZMC7ATI3PLAIIQ7xpAIgb2nxTs7FC?usp=drive_link
Greetings Alan,
I recently traveled to Upstate NY for the Total Eclipse, and I got to experience 3min 33sec of totality. I was part of an event that included about 50 people at a local winery (see attached) and was wondering if I could get the location pinned on the NOVAC map you created.
Location
11544 County Route 125 Point Salubrious Chaumont, NY 13622
Latitude: 44.056130, Longitude: -76.134730
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Clear Skies!
Paul
Paul’s images are here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XgotO_wtMRgBoPBfVq77Y1K--rDy1w9x/view?usp=sharing
Richard Friedrich
rf1776@yahoo.com April 17
Good day. My wife and I viewed the solar eclipse from the clear skies of Southeastern Missouri on a farm west of Glenallen. More spectacular than the 2017 eclipse viewed from Wyoming. Regards, Rich
rgardner25000@yahoo.com Apr 13 at 11:35 AM
Back from a successful eclipse expedition to the wilds of northern Ohio. We stayed with friends who had cannily purchased a retirement house 3 years ago on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, just a few miles from the eclipse center line where we enjoyed nearly 4 minutes of totality (which was much more than I experienced from Carbondale in 2017). I already posted what I thought was my best image in an earlier email sent after the eclipse, but going through my photos this weekend, I found this one which I think is better.
This was taken through a high overcast. The day started off clear after raining overnight. But clouds moved in during the day and although the forecast was for only 29% cloud cover at 3 pm (mid eclipse was at 3:12 pm), I think the cloud cover was much worse than that. We were lucky to see anything at all. But most of the clouds were to our southwest, which is the direction that the Moon's shadow was approaching from. I think the clouds enhanced the impression of the massive wall of the Moon's shadow rushing towards us at 1500 mph in the moments before totality.
Equipment: Canon M6 Mk 2 APS-C camera, Tamron 150-600mm zoom (at 400 mm), Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2i mount.
Bob Gardner
NOVAC Member
Falls Church, VA
Bob’s attached images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AkX8oldwmxsxutp4-dijh-2evh7fQt9e?usp=drive_link
Alan Goldberg & Pamela DeSmidt
agoldber3@yahoo.com April 30, 2024
Based on climatology and our intent for a limited driving trip, we had long planned to observe on the centerline in the shore of Lake Erie at Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH. As the forecast for that area deteriorated on Friday, we directed to southwest IL. We found a motel in Robinson, IL. Arriving Saturday night, a quick survey showed several potential sites around town. Most promising was the town park, which offered clear view of the sky, proximity to the motel, parking not far from an open lawn, electrical power, and the likelihood that others would congregate there to observe.
Being there permitted my grandson, daughter, and son-in-law to join us as a day trip from Champaign. It was great to be all together and especially to introduce my grandson to the event.
I brought my Seestar 50, two Canon Rebel (APS-C) cameras with 300 mm and 420 mm lenses on a CEM40 mount, and a computer running Eclipse Orchestrator. That setup allowed me to actually look at the eclipse with our old faithful 15x45 Canon IS binoculars.
We set up by noon, and had time to talk with neighbors at the site. As anticipated, low clouds cleared out well in advance, but light cirrus covered the sky.
Everything went well, EXCEPT THE SOFTWARE! (Of course, that is a euphomism for user error). Instead of bracketing, I ended up with 65 identical short exposures of totality. I have not yet reviewed the logs to see where I messed up. I fumbled a bit with the solar filters on the cameras and the Seestar. One of the cameras was modded (IR block filter removed) and attempted as an experiment to better capture the prominences. That did not work out well.
Overall, the eclipse was more enjoyable than 2017 with family around. My photos from 2017 were better, given the sky clarity and elevation at that TSE. But in 2017 I spent almost all my time looking at the camera, not the Sun.
Alan’s images are here. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TDINlXmBQuUsu3kdaR4qkO59dTI-YVEo?usp=drive_link
104 & 106 are from Seestar. 7121 (earlier) and 7185 (later) are from normal Canon. 5707 is from modded Canon.
Alex Gorbachev
ag@iss-integration.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:06 PM
First images from a DSLR
Alex’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zNTcom9OuGUHLtr6F-Dy9x2N2ijJI8Af?usp=drive_link
James Granahan
jcgranahan@comcast.net Wed, Apr 10 at 7:10 PM
Dear Alan,
My daughter and I successfully viewed the entire eclipse at a hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. Our plans did not change. We were amazed to see solar prominences with the unaided eye. Our observations were with solar glasses, solar binoculars, and normal binoculars. It was great to see totality this eclipse as I was clouded out in Charleston, South Carolina during the 2017 eclipse.
--James Granahan
Richard Grauel
grauelrl38@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 11:32 AM
Forecasts didn’t give much hope. But, cloudy skies gave way mid morning to blue skies. We sat in the front yard and watched the eclipse arrive. Mars and Saturn appeared as one and Jupiter on the other side were easily seen. The prominence was plain to see, although I didn’t know exactly what it was at the time. After totality, the mourning doves started up nearby. Richard
Trey Gruel
drathos@gmail.com ` Tue, Apr 9 at 11:43 PM
Like others, I pivoted from my original plan (Texarkana, TX) due to the weather forecasts and instead headed north to Williamstown, NY with a couple of friends. We were a fair bit south of the centerline, with 2:51 of totality (about 30 seconds more than I had on the centerline in 2017). Perfectly clear weather on Sunday and I really should have set up a telescope to take advantage of the dark skies they've got there (darker than Sky Meadows), but I was tired after the drive up. Monday morning, there was high, wispy clouds. Unfortunately, the clouds built up a lot around noon. Got set up, but had a tarp ready as there was a line of rain moving in our direction on the radar (luckily, it never made it to us). Had a few, brief clear views during the partial phases, but it was mostly through clouds. We missed C2 as a particularly dense cloud was in the way, but it thinned after a minute and we got a decent view of totality and C3. Only the brightest part of the corona was visible, but we could clearly see a couple of prominences, which I was able to show more clearly (and capture) with my Seestar. Even more clouds between C3 and C4, with long stretches of nothing visible at all.
One big difference for me this year vs 2017 was the animal activity. In 2017, I was in a Walmart parking lot in a small town in Tennessee (White House, population ~12k). There wasn't much noticeable animal activity. This year, I was on the outskirts of an even smaller town (Williamstown, NY, population ~1.1k) right by a small lake. 2017 was super quiet. This year it was the opposite, with various frogs and birds becoming much more active. The animals were *very* reactive. Especially the spring peepers and mosquitos! Even heard a couple of beavers splashing along the shore. While the mosquitos were swarming, we had a couple bees land and couldn't be bothered enough to fly off. One landed on the back of my hand and was chill as I guided it to my finger and moved it to the table, where it stayed for the entirety of totality.
Amusingly, one of the "neighbors" across the lake was watching the eclipse from a hot air balloon.
Also, it was clear again today.. The clouds only came in for the eclipse..
Mon, Apr 8 at 11:05 PM
Those clouds from earlier in Cleveland got us in Williamstown, NY.
Had intermittent views of partiality and lost half of totality to clouds, but got a break near the end.
Taken with the Seestar.
Trey’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uaza7nHma5haCHftsz6k3fNWr7HzXGu-?usp=drive_link
Robert A Hand
hand746@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 7:16 PM
Alan, fellow NOVAC members ...
Sorry for the delayed report. I did not bring my laptop with me, and I hate typing emails on a phone. I just returned to Falls Church this afternoon.
My observing location was Advance, Missouri. While I was initially planning on Vincennes, Indiana, clear sky seemed more certain in Advance, and indeed even the light clouds disappeared as the eclipse began. No major crowds, nor traffic other than a few tractors en route. In the city park, my wife and I were joined by locals and folks from Wisconsin, Arizona and Kansas, among other places. The police and local officials all stopped by to welcome us. It was worth the few extra miles, and I was glad to have stayed overnight in Kentucky which allowed me to consider locations from Ohio to Missouri. The only scary thing was the incredible, early morning fog while crossing the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at Cairo, Illinois.
In addition to the glasses, we brought 15x70 binoculars fitted with homemade solar filters mounted on a tripod, plus my old, rickety 80mm refractor equipped with a "sun funnel." See attached.
I cannot add much to what has already been described. I shared the awe. Totality was 4 minutes 9 seconds. We spent about 6 hours at the site, setting up, waiting, and the eclipse from beginning to end. Long day.
My son Jakob, who may still be a NOVAC member (I am not sure), lives in Burlington, Vermont. He originally was going to join us in the Midwest but, as the forecast became more solid, decided to stay put, with clear sky in nearby Essex, Vermont.
Bob Hand
Images of Bob’s setup can be found here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jEChX7AF0OT3kj3LIIizND5RJO_hYrHm/view?usp=drive_link
Joyce Harman
harmanjoyce@gmail.com Sun, Apr 21 at 10:38 PM
View from Jackman Maine
My preparations were geared to go where the weather would be clear. A few days out that looked like Maine was the best place, though on the day, many folks got to have at least some clear weather. Northern Maine near the Canadian border was crystal clear and warmish (the snow underfoot melted all day leading to very wet cold feet). The view over a large frozen lake was excellent. I shot with my Nikon Z8 as the primary camera (100-400 lens). Great images shot bracketing, My backup camera was a full spectrum converted Nikon Z7II. I was able to bracket 9 stops with the camera, hoping for more detail in the moon and corona. Not sure I got that, but maybe need to learn more about processing those images. A fun time, and only added an extra 4 hours drive time to a 4 hour drive to get back to where we stayed.
Joyce’s images of people and the Sun are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xjxtUD22lyqbW9k1DUZE-KJC14HY0FXZ?usp=drive_link
Jeffrey Holbrook
jeffrey.holbrook@lmco.com Fri, Apr 12 at 12:10 AM
My wife and I were in Delaware, OH for the eclipse. We wound up with clear skies during the actual eclipse, fantastic view.
Sincerely, Jeffrey
Edward Hulten
eddiehulten@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 9:02 AM
My wife and I took our four kids to Stowe, VT. The experience was so amazing and all were completely blown away. We did hit the same insane traffic coming back to RI. A 4 hour trip became 7 hrs. It also seemed like the cell phone towers may have become bogged down as we had difficulty obtaining GPS and traffic updates on cellular in areas where it should not be a hassle. Waze took us on some crazy back roads to avoid the highway. Cars were moving but one kid unfortunately lost it due to motion sickness from the windy back roads. Still a once in a lifetime amazing experience. We appreciate all the shared wisdom from Novac.
Eddie
Paul Jacobs
paulpjacobs@comcast.net April 21, 2024
Hello, I went to Montreal Canada for the Eclipse - totality and the weather was great. You can add my pin to the map.
Daniel Jacobson
danielmj2012@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 9:33 PM
I drove from Fairfax VA, to Rochester NY (after my original plan of Dallas TX turned out thunderstormy and the airline cancelled our plans). When our fallback plan of Western NY turned out cloudy as well, I pivoted to St Albans VT a 6.5hr drive away.
The drive proved worth it (see attached). Funny how similar my images prove to others who've shared the same - almost as if we share the same sun (who'dve guessed?).
May future eclipses be as fortuitous - and as widely felt.
Dan’s images are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_lfDwvUH2QrpNzgEtoLzGAMbNTRgJygy?usp=drive_link
William Jensen
billjensen@alumni.nd.edu Tue, Apr 9
We were in Colebrook NH and had crystal clear skies and 2 min, 59 sec of totality and an amazing TSE. And the trip back was like a black hole traffic wise. Our first leg was 242 miles which took 9 hours. but worth it. Our neighbors two doors down from us (he works for NASA) were in Indy at the Speedway.
Alan, thank you for making the eclipse map and for the prep meetings via zoom.
Bill
John Kopecky
kopeckynovac@gmail.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:04 PM
Totality, Brockville, Ontario. Clouds deepened 15 minutes before totality and cleared 15 minutes after totality. However we still had a good time.
John’s image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jw5SZK4Z1y1TS9mBoS5QXEyymYy0yK11/view?usp=drive_link
Robert Korb
.... BTW - I was in Tupper Lake at the Quinn Elementary School (with NASA and citizen science) at an event put together by Seth McGowan from the Adirondack Sky Observatory.. Maybe you can add my geo location as another NOVAC member in yet another location for the eclipse.. Originally we planned for Kerrville, TX and changed to upstate NY with 4 days notice.
Robert uploaded his images to the lame NOVAC members’ image gallery. Good luck finding them. As a clue, one of the pictures shows the corona as blue.
John Kasianowicz
jjkastro@mac.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:40 PM
We caught and imaged it near Vincennes, IN.
Two proms were easy naked eye targets. The loop prom was remarkably bright.
I’ll download and process a few pix on my way to a remote observatory in Ft. Davis.
Tue, Apr 9 at 10:00 PM
At Vincennes, IN, we also has some high thin cirrus clouds. A first glance the photos we took with my zoom lens at 300 mm look like the clouds will limit the extent of the Corona we’ll be able to pull out of the data.
However, to the naked eye and with 18x50 IS binoculars, the Corona had a non-symmetric structure that appeared to extend > 1.5 solar diameters.
Jeffrey Kretsch
jlkretsch@verizon.net Wed, Apr 10 at 5:36 PM
Got nice view in Dayton, Ohio through thin clouds.
Jeff K
Charles Lawson
charles@charleslawson.com Tue, Apr 9 at 4:09 PM
I am pretty depressed today. I had been intensely following weather trends and forecasts for the month leading up to the event and finally settled on Cleveland as the destination we would choose. Since I *had* to work the following days, we could not risk road congestion delays, so I had to book flights and hotel for a whirlwind trip. I feared I had already waited too long when I finally moved on the reservations, but we were lucky to get refundable flights and hotel -- at great expense -- for a quick swoop in and swoop out.
On Sunday, I checked all the possible weather sources routinely and combined the info. with my own past university meteorology studies to assemble a likely picture. The situation looked “iffy” throughout the day and evening on Sunday, and when the local experts were calling for approaching cirrostratus during the last update before my cancellation window closed, I decided I could not risk a month’s salary for a trip that might result in nothing but a dim, murky sky.
We stayed home in Northern VA.
As totality approached, a good friend in Cleveland texted me: “It’s pretty clear here. Gah! You should have come!”
There was no sobbing emoji intense enough to cover my reaction.
I promised myself, as a five-year-old watching my first partial solar eclipse, that I would do whatever it took to see 2017 and/or 2024. I failed the first time due to family hospice care. I failed this time due to financial fear.
I’m not sure what lesson is buried in here, but I am delighted for those of you who “took a chance” and were rewarded with what might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience! I don’t know if I will ever have another opportunity, myself, but I will do my best to rescue my reputation with that five-year-old kid who is currently inconsolable.
Thank you all for sharing your photos here so we could see a version of what we missed in-person.
And good luck to any of you planning to travel for another under-the-umbra experience again in the not-too-distant future!
Chas.
Ian MacIntire
iangetsemail@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 3:16 PM
I drove from Tulsa, Oklahoma to a location east of Russellville. The location was a field on Crow Mountain at 1992 Maple Springs Rd, Russellville, AR. I was really worried about the cirrus clouds because they were heavy at times in the morning, but the sky cleared to deep blue before totality and we had an unobstructed view for the full 4 minutes. It was unbelievable. I didn't know it would be so bright and fiery. I could see all these pink sparkles around the edge of the moon. The moon was so inky black and the corona was so bright and whispy, I couldn't believe the contrast. I was just alternating between my plain eyes and looking through my 8x binoculars the whole time. It went by so fast it felt like only 2 minutes. I wish there were some way to see it again. Traffic back to Tulsa was horrible but it didn't matter. All I could think about was what I just saw and how there's really no way to fully describe it.
Ian M
Howard Marcus
hjmarcus@outlook.com Tue, Apr 9 at 3:58 PM
In 2017, the sun was at solar minimum. We are now only months away from solar maximum which explains the numerous prominences.
One of my images with Canon R6 mirrorless DSLR and Canon 100-500mm lens.
Bloomington, Indiana.
Howard Marcus
Howard’s image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PvpHMdl6df268-T5J1ZBfsnmKdSgaogX/view?usp=drive_link
Joel Miller
jbm3169@gmail.com April 20, 2024
The view from Killeen, Texas
It was mostly cloudy on eclipse day in Killeen, TX, but there were breaks in the clouds between first and second contact and brief views of totality between/through the clouds. The sky was somewhat clearer between third and fourth contact. We enjoyed binocular views, when available, and I managed to get a few photos (Nikon Z6ii, 300mm lens, 1.7x teleconverter, alt/az tracking mount) between the clouds. I've attached photos of late totality and third contact diamond ring.
Joel Miller’s photos are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Deou5eMV3xpMYxtMKhPMjz5nvuCmqq3l?usp=drive_link
Kandi Mitchell
kandim78@icloud.com Fri, Apr 12 at 12:15 AM
Alan,
I had success in Copperas Cove, Texas. The weather models weren’t looking great but I had plans with a friend there so backing out or changing location wasn’t an option. Although my friend and I travel a lot together and we seem to have amazingly good weather juju (Iceland summer 2017 and Hoh River Basin in Washington State late summer 2021 - each for a whole week with zero days of rain!) I was extremely nervous. The clouds were moving fast in Texas but low and heavy at times, completely blocking the sun on and off all morning. The hour before totality, some really heavy clouds moved in and I was very worried. The coverage varied from wide open to completely blocked many times. I was in a location that had more than 4 minutes of totality but that first minute, the sun was completely blotted out. And then, it cleared completely. I am super happy with the images I was able to get with my DSLR setup. Low res screen shots attached.
Kandi Mitchell
Edward Murray
saoi.ejm@gmail.com Thu, Apr 11 at 2:08 PM
Was fortunate to get a clear view of the eclipse from upstate NY (Au Sable Forks is about 30 minutes from Lake Placid). Forecast went from sunny to cloudy as the weekend progressed, and some hazy clouds started to form in the afternoon, but we lucked out with a clear view from start to finish. Ed Murray
Ed’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y__kh5M4o4Cb2xAdH0XFR8lGKDjh7Iam?usp=drive_link
Eric Novotny
novotnyej@gmail.com Fri, Apr 19 at 9:19 AM
View from West Salem, OH
Hi,
I was able to rent a 65-acre estate in West Salem, Ohio about 2 miles from the center line, yielding about 3 minutes 21 seconds during totality. Family gathering of 11 persons. I used my Orion ED80 with a Celestron table-top tripod and a Nextstar alt-az mount. Used a white light Seymour Solar filter and a straight through Revolution Imager R2 with a 7-inch display. I used this to give the group a live sky view of the progression of the eclipse beginning at C1. We also had a Canon EOS R5 DSLR on a camera tripod and two smartphone solar viewers.
Had some scattered, thin high-altitude cirrus clouds but no other problems. Great views of two diamond ring effects and prominences. Corona was a bit attenuated for a minute due to some scattered cirrus clouds. Venus and Jupiter plainly visible. Tried to view comet12P/Pons-Brooks but no one sighted that object.
Images attached.
Eric Novotny
Eric’s images are here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LGaEoi76iWAimnXl5TJGzjnD88COnsup/view?usp=sharing
Kathi Overton
kathi@bungalow.org Wed, Apr 10 at 2:11 PM
My husband and I went to Garland, TX, on the outskirts of Dallas, and watched from the town square at a public celebration there. There was a good sized crowd, and I would guess that the majority were locals, not dedicated eclipse chasers. For many of these folks, I’ll bet this was the one and only time in their lives that they had a chance to see a total eclipse.
There were intermittent clouds all morning and up through the eclipse. After just a few precious seconds of totality, the Sun disappeared behind heavy clouds and the crowd was despondent. But, the eclipsed Sun popped through a hole in the clouds with a minute or so of totality remaining. The crowd reaction was joyous and wonderful!
The eclipse itself was glorious.
Shortly after totality (of course) the clouds cleared out and we enjoyed a beautiful blue sky .
There was a DJ at the event, and after totality a number of kids jumped up and started dancing. It was a great day!
Kathi’s images can be seen here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fvKdIBAnpIfXfj21_K9gQ2LHy0kxZ4Bo?usp=drive_link
Bob Parks
bparks@volt.org Wed, Apr 10
Pics from the eclipse
Bob Parks
Bob’s images can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rEWfX_-zlLzDOLav64gT5qYpoCuIpc0r?usp=drive_link
Dilip Patel
dilipsdroid@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 8:48 PM
Hi Alan,
I had a successful eclipse viewing from Mount Chase in Maine. I was set up right next to Arlen Raasch at Shin Pond Village Campground.
I had to abandon my Texas plan due to the weather.
Thanks, Dilip Patel
Brad Payne
pbradpayne@yahoo.com Thu, Apr 11 at 6:30 PM
Alan,
We were successful at West Chazy, NY.
Our hotel was in Watertown, but I got antsy when Tomer Burg, Pivotal Weather, Astrospheric, and Clear Outside were giving me conflicting forecasts--an effective coin flip for success. So I got the family up at 6AM and tried to get ahead of the gathering cirrus towards Plattsburg. No traffic at all on US-11 for the three hour trip. Found a maple farm that had free parking, food trucks, and beer. Clouds did catch up to us, but they didn't spoil the show. Turns out Watertown wasn't spoiled either from what I gathered when we got back.
Now the melting snow at the maple farm kept us in the parking lot because we didn't have room to pack boots. There was a fancy tent with large solar scopes across the field, but I didn't visit until it was over because I didn't want to get soaked. Turns out they were NOVAC members!
Brad
Brad’s image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qH_unYQqLyTj51PqTHsa6WkNuA2T1FIc/view?usp=drive_link
Tom Peake
tompeake98@yahoo.com Wed, Apr 10 at 3:36 PM
Hi,
I did make it to the Muncie, IN area and specifically to a private home near Summit Lake Park south of Muncie. We had high cirrus clouds but they did not interfere with viewing the eclipse. We were able to see Venus and Jupiter at totality. It was awesome!
Tom Peake
Cal Powell
planetarium.guy@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 12:17 PM
I set up two scopes at the National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly: a SolarScope (a projection telescope) and a Celestron NexStar 6se with Celestron EclipSmart solar filter. Other NASM volunteers were operating three or four Sunspotters at various places on the museum grounds. Intermittent clouds interfered with my ability to properly aim the Celestron until 3:30, but more than 270 visitors saw the partial eclipse in the SolarScope with the vast majority taking photos with their smartphones.
Congrats to all who witnessed and photographed the event!
Cal
Kevin Quin
astrovienna@yahoo.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:07 PM
[downsized images for NOVAC list] Clouds cleared just ten seconds before totality, and five minutes later they were gone completely. Crazy. The copperhead in the pics almost spoiled the whole thing, when I nearly tripped over him in the woods an hour before first contact.
Kevin
The Hole in the Trees Skybox: http://www.pbase.com/skybox
Kevin’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oqsBJW_iFkFSWYmv9g2Y_Tk45p1PxRSN?usp=drive_link
Arlen Raasch
araasch@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 2:06 AM
Alan,
Clear skies in Mt. Chase, Maine.
This is an eyepiece projection image captured with my cellphone.
An amazing experience!
Best, Arlen
Arlen’s image is here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FVX1eqIb-yRSO-mdWuGADDh-KXuTPyB-/view?usp=drive_link
Jim Richberg
jrichberg@gmail.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:06 PM
150 miles off the coast of Mexico (before the eclipse made landfall at Mazatlan) the forecast improved in the last 24 hours and we had clear skies and nearly 4:30 seconds of totality. Getting to see Humpback Whales migrate over the weekend was a nice bonus.
Troy Riedel
troy.riedel@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 11:52 PM
The Great American Eclipse of 2024:
After abandoning my long-standing plans of going to AR/OK/TX because of iffy weather, I started my journey by traveling to PA. I stayed in PA for two days monitoring the forecasts in PA, Western NY, and Eastern New York. I had planned to join a fellow NOVAC member in Ionia (Rochester, NY). After each forecast progressively worsened, I focused on Newport, VT & Houlton, ME (after also abandoning Plattsburgh, NY and Burlington, VT).
I decided on Newport, VT (Newport is on the Quebec border) and I struck gold. This is the friendliest town. They [always] have free multi-night municipal parking for us "camper van people'' - and the lot overlooks the water (the best parking lot in town). This town looks like a postcard – what a beautiful & friendly little Hamlet!
Before I give a detailed 'trip report' (or SITREP for us military people) that many may not be interested to read - I'll start with the view & conditions of the eclipse. The sky completely cleared around 11:15 AM on Sunday. It remained so overnight into Monday morning. I took a walk to the other side of the lake and I saw the advancing cirrus on the western horizon (8-8:30 AM). I noted no movement of the cirrus through approx. noon. But I then noticed the cirrus band had advanced approx. 12-15 degrees above the horizon from noon to 1 P.M.
I was nervous.
At the start of totality, approx. 3:29 P.M., there was the ever-so-slightest band of cirrus that had reached the sun's position. I wasn't even 100% sure there was anything there until totality. There was 'just enough' there that it did impact what we saw of the corona. It was a static halo, no discernible changes, with two faint spikes bearing 0-degrees and the other near 270-degrees. But the corona was not dynamic. It's amazing what such an ultra-thin obscuration can do (so slight that I would not have noticed anything during visual nighttime obs).
At my location in Newport, VT, the eclipse was a solid B or maybe B+. If you consider how many were impacted by or completely clouded-out, you might grade this as an A- or even an A on a curve. But compared to what I saw in 2017 from Crossville, TN - 2017 was much more spectacular (dynamic!) versus 2024 in Newport, VT.
The full story - which I hope some will find interesting - of my 48-hours:
I set-up my equipment the day before for a test-run. Many local residents were visiting the municipal lots, chatting with the early visitors and checking license plates for the person who traveled the farthest. I had taken my Hydrogen-Alpha telescope. The locals were enthralled seeing solar detail they had never dreamed of seeing. A few of the local visitors worked for the town government (I know one was the city planner, another was someone from the emergency management department - the other, I cannot say for sure but I think he was a former government official).
The next thing I knew, I was approached on eclipse morning. It was 'recommended' that instead of setting-up at my van, that I should instead set-up on a 2nd floor observation deck at their port (where the harbormaster, customs & border patrol offices, and where the tour boat moors). I ended up having approx 35 people up there (mostly visitors who were in-town to see the eclipse - except the City Planner/Architect stayed there for the heart of the eclipse). I had another 30-40 people (at least half of those were locals who knew about "the guy who had an H-A telescope on the deck") who stopped-by for a quick look through the telescopes. I should mention that I also had a 90mm white light scope set-up as well for comparison.
Here's the interesting part: I met Mack. As I was explaining the set-up, he said to me "I have an astrophysics degree". I apologized and said "Oh, I'm sorry - you don't need my explanation". He stated he was enjoying every minute, and he appreciated my solar instruction to everyone. He ended by saying "Boy, I miss college ... we did such fun things in college and this reminds me of the fun I had there". Mack (a young man) was there for visual obs - and he set-up his camera, focused on the pier and the hundreds of people on it, to capture and process a video of the change in ambient light from before, during totality, and through the end of the eclipse. I didn't ask, but this may have been his 'work' and the reason why he was there? It's a cool video - I have a copy but I must ask for his permission to disseminate before I can post it here.
There was another young man on the observation deck all day - James. A few of us spoke to James - because he was familiar with the harbormaster, Patrick - and James had Patrick kill the breaker for all of the lamp posts in the "port" area. During the eclipse, our lights were the ONLY lights that did not illuminate in the entire town!
After the eclipse ended, James hugged me. Twice. He only then told me he had done some repair & installation work on the 2.4 meter telescope at Kitt Peak (he humbly asked me if I had ever heard of it). He said he had assisted once in the past with a hydrogen-alpha filter installation on another telescope. But he had never once been able to look through ANY telescope. Just looking at the sun in a simple white light filter thrilled him until he saw the H-A image, which he said "this made my eclipse, I will never forget this". I was so busy doing what was in reality an ad hoc outreach event that it wasn't until it was over that I realized that James stood nearby (behind me) the entire day, and kept taking looks through both telescopes whenever there was a lull and the scope didn't have an observer waiting to look. I recall James stepped in for a look when I'd change the eyepiece, or I'd go from single to double or double to single stack. The only person who looked through either scope more on eclipse day was me - though it's debatable James may have had equal or more eyepiece time on the white light scope.
Before deciding on Newport, VT, my other option was Houlton, ME. I'm quite sure the conditions in Houlton were [a wee bit] better than Newport, but that slight difference surely and considerably would have improved the corona from that location (I haven't yet read any other observation reports as I did not want to be influenced by others before I captured my thoughts). But after my 48-hours in Newport, the friendships that I made, and having dinner with one family who insisted that I come to their house for dinner after the eclipse means that I do not regret choosing Newport as my eclipse destination over Houlton.
The little town of Newport was incredibly organized & prepared to handle the crowds. And they welcomed and cherished their opportunity to be 'discovered by the outside world'.
Troy Riedel
Bob Robinson
citroenut@gmail.com April 10, 2024
Jupiter, Sol, and Venus from NE Dallas.
Bob’s image can be seen here https://drive.google.com/file/d/16LvsAuUUlsMG_TKhwdDfK4fNKQ-bfntB/view?usp=drive_link
John Scarfone
novac@scarfone.net Wed, Apr 10 at 6:05 PM
So like many, my wife and I finalized plans over a year ago after considering a variety of factors. We settled on Fredericksburg, Texas. When the extended forecast continued to look grim, my wife booked rooms in Heber Springs, Arkansas. When it appeared that the northeast was the only area consistently looking good she booked rooms in Rochester, NY and reserved a spot at a viewing party there. Next was Watertown, NY where we did end up actually staying Saturday and Sunday night. During our stay there when it was still looking a bit iffy, the march east continued*. We considered viewing in Potsdam, NY at an arts and crafts fair. The next idea was staying in Malone, NY and viewing the event in Plattsburgh, NY. When Plattsburgh was looking marginal we cancelled the Malone reservation and got rooms in St. Albans, VT and planned on viewing there. On eclipse day, the forecast was better to the east of St. Albans so we checked out of our hotel in Watertown at 5 am and drove through Champlain, across the bridge to Vermont, and then all the way to Newport. We felt pretty good about the forecast there not that it mattered, the eclipse being only hours away. We set up in a field next to the Clyde River near the Newport Farmers’ Market. There was plenty of space and not too crowded with many friendly folks. There were clouds on the horizon when we arrived at 11:30 but we hoped they wouldn’t encroach too far. Luckily they didn't get in the way of the experience. In fact, until I came down from my eclipse mania later and went through our pictures, I hadn’t even noticed how many high, thin clouds were scattered around near totality. While they may have affected the corona slightly, I didn’t notice at the time. We had an unobstructed view from first contact to last. This was only our second totality, the first being in 2017 in Glendo, Wyoming. I remember seeing a more wispy, larger corona then but this one had those awesome prominences. It was stunning. The best part was that I was able to bring both my parents in their mid-80s to see their first total eclipse. It was great to share the experience with them.
Luckily, it seems the forecasts were a bit pessimistic in a lot of areas. I’m glad so many folks got to see it, including some areas in Texas.
* other places we tried and failed to find rooms include Potsdam NY, Canton NY, Paul Smiths NY, Lake Placid NY, Champlain NY, Saranac Lake NY, Jay VT, Burlington VT, Jackman ME, and Rockwood ME.
Vic Sgobba
vsgobba@aim.com Tue, Apr 9 at 4:09 AM
Fairfax County Parks Association and Analemma Society held a very successful event Great Falls for the viewing of the solar eclipse. It was a very well organized event and a lot of kudos to all the organizers and volunteers that sponsored the event. Though I was a last minute addition, the staff welcomed me and I set up my Orion 80mm ED scope and Baader filter for public viewing. Sky started out clear at first contact, but through the event we had intermittent clouds though nothing that were deal breakers. There were about 300 people or so that came to the event through peak coverage and beyond. About 100 people or so viewed the eclipse through my scope, and many took pictures with their smartphones at the eyepiece. All the people were very complimentary and pleased with the views during the whole progression. I was also blown away with a view of awesome sunspots, through the roll top observatory's 7 inch refractor. All in all, a great time and it felt good to be back participating in outreach. Nice to read the other reports of all the club members that had great experiences, Vic Sgobba
stephensimko.simko@gmail.com April 16
For a clear sky, we drove to Quebec, Notre-Dame-des-Bois at the foot of Mont Megantic.
Thanks, Stephen Simko
Stephen’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dTkRrY6lBFgqeK_2HfoCOuR9LOZQSu6C?usp=drive_link
Richard Sirois
rich.sirois@gmail.com Tue, Apr 9 at 6:46 PM
I made a late decision to watch from Wapokoneta Ohio fairgounds as it had a good forecast and was on the centerline. It was a fairly big area with about 1000 onlookers.
We had some high clouds. The eclipse was a great show but the corona size appeared to be smaller than the 2017 Eclipse. The solar prominences were more pronounced than 2017.
Jaime Sonstroem
jasonstroem@verizon.net Mon, Apr 15 at 3:51 PM
Hi Alan,
I traveled with 7 family members to Clifton Springs, NY, about 25 mi east of Rochester. We had a few glimpses of partiality through cloud cover, then nothng after 3pm. Overcast the rest of the afternoon with some rain.
Still, the darkness event was dramatic. See my attached low-res movie. It got much darker than when I saw totality in 2017 near Charleston, SC. Did actually hear a rooster crow, dogs bark, birds singing..
Thanks for doing the interactive map. Is there a way to add a legend so viewers can know exactly what the color dots mean?
Thanks,
Jay Sonstroem
Jay’s movie is found here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YelosRovOGOb0aV0uw-PFRP1M5PiURS9/view?usp=sharing
George Stallings
gfstallin@yahoo.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:06 PM
Everything has conspired against us for this trip. After clouds; 5-hour flight delays; two mistaken hotel identities (there are 1.6M Marriot Residence Inns in Dallas alone according to conservative estimates), I thought I had made it through the gauntlet and cheated the universe. The universe, which empirical evidence shows is very much concerned with it considers too much enjoyment on my part, had one more trick up its sleeve: USB hubs. After working so well earlier this week, last night and again this morning in the hotel room, the USB hub died in the field. Nothing could revive it. While my setup was comparatively modest, I had my Herschel wedge, Quark Chromosphere, AZ-GTi, and 60mm ED doublet ready to go. I had 4 USB cables. USB cables could not connect to my tablet laptop without a functional hub. An issue with a $25 very necessary USB hub caused $2500 worth of equipment to basically became a brick I'm probably going to have to walk home given how this trip has played out.
I sprinted back to the hotel, grabbed the SeeStar I almost did not bring because laziness is both a trait and a virtue, and fired it up. I 100% expected it wouldn't work, but in that moment the universe's attention was elsewhere. Surely, someone's great grandmother was arrested for jaywalking (with a walker) while attempting to get heart medication for a neighbor who is newly wheelchair-bound. This was after explaining that the only reason she jaywalked was because her blood donation left her feeling a little too light-headed to use the crosswalk 10 feet away.
While mentally thanking someone's grammy for taking an L for me, I captured what I could from the Seestar. This thing was supposed to be a sideshow, at best. It saved the trip. Heavy clouds moved in not one minute after the end of totality and, indeed, obscured some of it.
What I was able to capture was not great. In most other circumstances, I'd be disappointed with this result since my $2,500 brick could have done so much better. If I only had a second USB hub. If I never use this Seestar again, it made itself worth every penny in a matter of 4 minutes.
This image is quickly processed from an external drive connected to a suddenly functional USB hub. I had planned for multiple points of failure and even brought 3 cameras with me. This was one failure I had not seen coming.
George
George’s image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ltfpsp6IzwTCYb7YgbQVQ_kv7kkknWF4/view?usp=drive_link
Jay Sullivan
sullivan.jay@gmail.com Apr 10, 2024, at 12:52 AM
Hi Alan,
Thanks for keeping track of the observing reports. I'm happy to report that we had a successful trip to Columbus Indiana to view the eclipse.
Leading up to the eclipse, I was lucky to have two options - heading to Indiana or heading up to a friend's house near Potsdam NY. I monitored the weather at both sites like a hawk for a week. Indiana was my first choice since it would allow me to pick up my daughter who is a grad student at UK in Lexington KY, and thankfully the weather cooperated.
We drove out to Lexington on Saturday and booked a hotel there from Saturday through Tuesday. We left around 8am Monday morning for the 2.5 hour drive to Columbus, and thankfully hit no traffic at all. I picked Columbus since it was just off of the interstate and a little south of the center-line so I could make a bee-line back to Lexington right after totality ended.
I scoped out various parks in Columbus and decided to try Mill Race Park. I fully expected it to be completely packed with no parking available by the time we arrived around 10:30. But to my shock and delight, there were still plenty of parking spots open. Not only was the park amazing (tons of green space, a river running through it, and clean bathrooms), the town of Columbus was charming and only a 5 minute walk from the park.
The weather was perfect. The attached photo of the park was taking about 30 minutes before totality, and the sky at totality resembled what you see at the very top left - almost perfectly clear.
I am a complete amateur at trying to photograph an eclipse, so I intentionally didn't spend much time trying. I wanted to watch it with my own eyes, and I also had some image-stabilized binoculars to use, which were amazing. But I did take a couple quick shots with my Canon EOS R7 using a Tamron 200mm lens with a 2x converter. The effective focal length was 640mm. I haven't had a chance to play around with the RAW images yet, but I have attached a reduced copy of one of my JPG images.
Since I had heard nightmares of traffic after an eclipse, we decided to bug-out of the park immediately after totality. It worked out great. We were out of the park within 15 minutes after totality ended and only faced moderate traffic heading back to Lexington. It took about 3.25 hours rather than 2.5 with no traffic.
Now I need to start planning for the next one! If I'm lucky enough to be around, I might skip the one in 2044 and wait for the one in 2045. If I'm reading this right - it will have over SIX minutes of totality! I didn't even think that was possible!
- Jay
Jay’s images are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17GzBY1E_MFW0lm2NDhgzVZCwREBNYlSF?usp=drive_link
Ken & Beth Tatum
jktatum152@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 5:19 PM
Alan,
Sorry, just got back from the trip. In the end, Atmospheric’s forecast led Beth and I to Shelbyville IN, where we had a great view for the event. We were actually at the same park as Dan Ward and family.
Clear skies,
—Ken T.
Linda Thomas-Fowler
linda@ac4lt.org Apr 16 at 3:59 PM
I’ve been fortunate to see three total solar eclipses now that the 2024 eclipse is in the books. I wasn’t sure this one was going to happen. The forecast wasn’t great for either option we had (Arkansas or Maine) but on the day we had to make a go/no go decision, the Arkansas forecast had improved enough that we at least had a chance. The models kept oscillating from mildly encouraging to fairly discouraging but we decided that if we didn’t travel we definitely wouldn’t see it. So, off we went!
The weather in Houston, Arkansas was perfect and by the day before the eclipse five of six models were looking very encouraging while the sixth was a bit more pessimistic though not terrible. I went to bed that night fairly optimistic. So, of course, the next morning saw high clouds obscuring most of the sky!
That was more in line with the 6th model which was not ideal. I looked at the satellite cloud cover map and there was nowhere we could reach in time so we had to hope for the best. Thankfully, the universe delivered and by first contact all the remained were a few wispy clouds here and there and even those were gone by second contact!
The telescope took photos with minimal intervention from me while we enjoyed the views on a perfect spring day.
Solar eclipses never get old and I was just as excited for this one as I had been for the others. Totality was dark…it seemed like the sky was darker than it was for the 2017 eclipse, perhaps because the moon was a bit closer for this one. There were some sunspots to enjoy and several large prominences but the corona didn’t seem as detailed as it did in 2017 though any corona is a good corona!
Overall it was a great eclipse!
The only downside was on the trip home. A bit over an hour into the return trip the check engine light came on. According to the map the closest service required us to backtrack 20 minutes and it turned out the thermostat for the cooling system picked that moment to die. So much for having preventitive maintenance done before we left. That turned our long one day drive home into a three day event as we had to wait a day for the part and as a result didn’t get an early start on the second day. But, we eventualy made it home though working on the images took longer than I wanted.
Despite the unexpected layover, we had a great eclipse!
I’ve attached a composite image of totality. This combines a shorter and longer exposure to maximize the corona. And here is a link to a video I did with a timelapse of the eclipse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq72Rgds7NQ
Linda
Linda’s attached image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eXxykQiR3dB4SxWc8OXUz_cdBApeXB5a/view?usp=sharing
Bill Tracy
billtracy3@aol.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:10 PM
Clear skies in Morrilton Arkansas ....thanks for the assists...Bill Tracy
Charles Twardy
ctwardy@mac.com Tue, Apr 9 at 5:56 PM
5 of us drove to Cleveland and stayed with family; we all had tickets to the arboretum so just went with plan figuring it was a pleasant place to see darkness however it fell. As others reported, it worked great and we saw the hole in the sky.
Rainy morning in Cleveland Heights totally cleared by 11, then high cirrus moved in at the arboretum 30 miles east, but those were fine.
We had no magnification and didn’t identify the bright spot(s) as prominence(s) until seeing the fantastic photos on the list - awed by those, and that we could see them unaided.
The 3 Astrospheric models strongly disagreed: with GSM calling 100% cover and the other two near 0%. Wondering if GSM counts high cirrus more, or if they just diverged about when the system would move.
Sublime experience.
Thu, Apr 11 at 12:32 PM
Our Tuesday drive from Cleveland took ~1/3 longer than usual. Definitely eclipse traffic but not bad considering.
Snt frm a mbl phn.
Hello Everyone,
…
As some payback for this request, below is the collage of photos I was able to gather in challenging clouds in Lampasas, Texas. (Lots of cloud breaks before totality, fewer after and thick haze toward the end.) I attached a copy of the actual file for the ensemble.
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Cheers,
Greg
p.s. In addition to the ensemble, there are a few totality photos that emphasize the prominences that were visible.
Greg Vaughn
Alexandria, VA
703-901-2547
Attached images are here in .zip file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1stqNvMIhD_yeJHe-Ehm8FLtnZiI38mVk/view?usp=drive_link
Eric Vondra
evondra@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 5:47 PM
Alan,
I was at Conneaut, OH for totality. Good view through thin cirrus. Second eclipse I've viewed from an interstate rest stop- excellent location to watch from.
Eric Vondra
Thu, Apr 11 at 8:41 PM
I would be hesitant to do projection at eye level. For this and the 2017 eclipse, I used a very cheap 20x40 Orion spotting scope set on a small tripod near ground level. Last eclipse, I was worried something would melt (plastic or glue), but even this cheap spotting scope was totally fine after hours of projection.
It's a great way to share the partial phases with a crowd, and both times I had many people come up to ask about it and take a picture of the current phase. There was even one woman who was afraid to use eclipse glasses, and she was able to get a nice view, including sunspots.
I used corrugated plastic clamped to a plywood board and weighted down with gear against the breeze. That's an eyepiece shield extender I made out of craft foam to prevent any off-axis reflections from being visible, just as a precaution. The big corrugated plastic shade is a friction fit over the front of the scope, and is very lightweight but rigid.
We were at a rest stop on I-90 near Conneaut, OH, a 65 mile drive west of where we were staying in Chautauqua, NY. Rest stops are great for eclipses- easy access, lots of parking and open space, good crowd, restrooms, vending machines, and this time, starting just before totality, they even played the audio from Foxwood Astronomy's Solar Eclipse Timer app over the loudspeaker. Very festive. My brother and I also watched the 2017 eclipse from a rest stop, on I-26 in SC.
Right after the eclipse, traffic back past Erie to NY State was light, but I-79 to Pittsburgh was jammed and it took my brother-in-law twice the normal time to get home. I warned him, but my niece and her friend had to catch a flight back to California in the morning. We left the next day.
Eric Vondra
Eric’s images of his projection setup are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xv4cdTDMAIwuM2YagN6a9EgyTat0dsLW?usp=drive_link
David Werth
36dwerth@comcast.net Fri, Apr 12 at 5:00 PM
After the disappointment of the 2017 solar eclipse, I dithered for a long time as to whether I wanted to bother with this year’s event. Ultimately, I decided I would make the effort and using the eclipse map, picked out a location in Northern Ohio on the line of totality. At my age the 8-hour straight drive to Ohio was exhausting. Sunday night at my motel I was sorry I came.
I had considered joining one of the Ohio clubs for their meet up in Cleveland but decided the post-eclipse traffic would likely be a pain. I had a spot picked out in Norwalk, Ohio where I could view the event by myself. But while driving there through a residential area I passed a sign that said, “Eclipse – Park Open.” A mile later I turned around and decided to watch the eclipse with whoever showed up there. I was glad I did.
I enter the world via a camera lens and was busily photographing the eclipse during its different phases. But just as the last sliver of light hung in the air like the last note of a song, someone hit the off switch and it was night…At least the crickets and tree frogs thought so as they set up what should have been a midnight concert.
I thought then about Dr. Mike Reynolds who I had as a guest speaker at the 2016 AL convention NOVAC hosted. Mike spent much of his adult life chasing eclipses and shared his excitement with us at ALCON. I confess, I didn’t really share his enthusiasm. I had seen several partial eclipses and found them interesting but not exciting. But on Monday April 8th 2024 during totality… I got it. The sun in total eclipse with that diamond ring glowing at the seven o’clock position was astonishing. It was one of the most profoundly beautiful things I have ever seen.
And when the sun began to return the 120 or so folks all cheered and clapped as if we had just been to a great stage show. And so, we had. I am glad I saw the eclipse with others as sharing special moments is better when you can turn to someone and say, “Wasn’t that great!” and see their smile in return.
davidw
Steven White
skw20854@gmail.com Wed, Apr 10 at 6:38 PM
Alan,
I was blessed to have friends living in a rural setting near Knightstown, Indiana (about halfway between Indianapolis and Richmond, Indiana) right on the centerline. Viewed eclipse in the privacy and comfort of their back deck with a 4 inch refractor and a Seestar (under clear sky at totality). Saw the birds head for the tress and go silent. The prominences were spectacular through the telescope ( could see the gap under under the large one very easily). Really haven’t seen a photo yet that does it justice. This was our first total eclipse, it can be graded a total success! Really appreciate all the information and guidance provided by you and club members through the chat leading up to this.
Jan Wisniewski
jan_astro@outlook.com Mon, Apr 8 at 11:16 PM
I watched it together with my wife Sofia, her brother and sister in law from the roof patio of Hotel Plaza next to village square. Even through clouds the event was breathtaking. The approach of the shadow from SW was truly dramatic...
April 13
I managed to do more processing of my images taken from Cuatrocienegas, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. 12 images exposed 2/3 f-stop apart through 80mm APO (440mm FL) were combined using a modified version of the ImageJ macro posted on my github page. Due to the thin clouds I had to modify processing method a little bit and will post this version there soon.
Hope you like this composite image.
I still plan to improve it but my small laptop (only 8GB RAM) will not handle extra steps - so final version has to wait until I return to MD and use my desktop...
‘Til then,
Jan
Jan’s image is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AcV1Nvc7t-_y4hXIg5AqFcni6qATO6T7/view?usp=sharing
Zhe (Eugene) Yuan
jackeugene@gmail.com Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Hi Alan,
This is Zhe Yuan.
It was great in Jackman ME! I successfully recorded the spectrum. I'm going to submit it to APOD. Thank you so much for you help!
Zhe Yuan
Eugene’s flash spectrum and setup can be found here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jps1e6jl_sULeIvXqQ5H8uMY3OUSyXu9/view?usp=drive_link