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Photos and Videos
First things first - here is a video of the eclipse. The partial phases are a time lapse made up of individual photos taken at 20 second intervals. Totality is a video. The background noise in the video is dominated by wind noise as the wind was blowing at 15-20 mph the whole time.
Solar Eclipse August 21, 2017 Video (Click on Above Image to See Video) Canon 60Da with 50-500mm Zoom Lens
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The First Diamond Ring - as the sun slipped behind the moon
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Bailey's Beads
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The exposure has been adjusted to show the Sun's Corona
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The exposure has been adjusted to show the Sun's Prominences (Solar Flares)
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Only the Solar Flares are visible
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The Second Diamond Ring as the sun starts to move out from behind the moon
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Sights and Sounds of Solar Eclipse August 21, 2017 Totality Video (Click on Image to See Video) Nikon Point and Shoot Camera
Our second night in our Igloo Shelter was not as much fun as the first. While it was warmer - this was, unfortunately due mostly to the cloud cover. We awakened in the middle of the night to trek to the port-a-potties and noticed none of the beautiful dark skies of the night before and there was a heavy wetness in the air. Additionally the air mattress had mostly deflated. We debated running the air compressor but opted not to and the mattress continued to lose air.
When we awakened in the morning, there was a heavy cloud layer and a low lying fog. It looked like the Eclipse was going to be a bust. Because of the number of people arriving late in the day on Sunday, cell phone service was non existent and looking across the field, there was at least half an hour wait for the porta-potties. Barry suggested breakfast at McDonalds with real bathrooms and wi-fi. We were leaving and one of the other guests, a gentleman from England, flagged us down and caught a ride with us.
It was interesting talking with him, hearing about his trip to the U.S. for the Eclipse. It turned out that he had been planning this since 1987 when it caught his eye that it would occur on his birthday. We commiserated on the weather on the way into town.
It seemed that about 50 other folks had the same idea about the McDonalds and it was really crowded with Eclipse-goers - but they weren't from the ranch we were staying on. Unfortunately, we were all vying for the same wi-fi. Eventually the weather forecast came up as partly cloudy and as we sat there eating breakfast we started to see patches of blue sky. Barry was convinced when the sun got high enough it would burn away the fog.
As we drove back, his predictions started to come true and the fog lifted. Then the clouds started to break up. By the time the partial phase of the eclipse started, the clouds had pretty much blown through and the sky was mostly clear. There was a lot of excitement in the air as many people who had never seen even a partial eclipse before geared up to watch totality.
Two of the many kites flying on Eclipse Day
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While everyone was waiting for the sky to clear and the activities to start, many folks wandered around meeting their neighbors and find out where they were from. We had a large number of visitors because our red ice-fishing shelter-tent was a curiosity and folks wanted to find out what it was. Also Barry had the hydrogen-alpha solar telescope set up and lots of people wanted to look through it to see the sun. We met many folks from Colorado and few from Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, Montana, New York, Arizona, and Nebraska.
In many ways the entire event was like an old fashioned western rendezvous. There were lots of kites flying as the wind blew a pretty steady 15-30 miles per hour. I was amazed that the folks in Nebraska have made kite flying a fine art and once the kite is up it stays up for hours. Of course, it helps that there are no kite-eating trees!
Behind us was a small group of folks who were participating in some type of Eclipse ceremony.
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View of the other Eclipse Watchers with the Light Starting to Dim
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Change in Light Nearing Totality
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Post-Totality Lunch!
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Post Eclipse Field - Notice the Lack of Trash! The previous night there were 300 tents/RV's camping here.
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After totality, many of the participants left for home. By the time the eclipse was over, there were only about 30% of the trailers and tents left. That night we estimate the number dropped to 10-15% remaining.
The night of the Eclipse, the skies remained clear and after spending the early evening letting other eclipse watchers look through the Vixen refractor, we took some pictures of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way Galaxy in Sagittarius; 120 sec. exposure; Canon 60Da with 28mm wide angle lens
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The Milky Way Galaxy in Cygnus the Swan; 120 sec. exposure; Canon 60Da with 28mm wide angle lens
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All too soon our Eclipse Day was over. We ate dinner and relaxed in Alliance at Ken and Dale's. This is a nice locally-owned steakhouse. Since this was the end of Eclipse weekend, we assumed that they had been pretty busy the whole time. We had driven by on our trip to McDonalds and the parking lot had been full-to-overflowing. And yet...they were still friendly and helpful! In fact, I would say everywhere we went in Nebraska, but particularly in Alliance the locals were easy to smile, friendly and were very patient with the hoards of (sometimes demanding) visitors.
