Monday, August 21, 2017

Scarlett and the Eclipse of 2017

As I mentioned in the previous posting, I'd traveled to Oskosh, Nebraska to be able to view the solar eclipse with 100% totality.  That means the moon would have blocked the sun 100%, briefly, and the corona would be visible.

The location where I parked Umarang, my URRV, which I used to tow Scarlett up proved a good spot to observe this astronomic phenomenon.

Here's Scarlett, in Trish and John's front yard, their old horse stable in the background next to their windmill.  The picture was taken just as the eclipse was starting so plenty of light arriving from the sun.


John and I sat on the porch in the shade, keeping track of the progress of the eclipse as it started blocking more and more of the sun.

We could feel the air cooling as the sun became more and more blocked by the moon.  Neat.

At totality, which only lasted like 28 seconds for our location since we were at the southern edge of the eclipse's path, here's what it looked like.

Slightly post-processed so you could actually
make out Scarlett....
Shortly after totality had passed.
Shot in Auto mode, no retouching except for resizing/cropping.

As alluded to in articles on the Internet, it was like having sunset occurring 360 degrees around us.  I thought that was pretty neat, even though it didn't last very long.

We could see our shadows still, kind of like walking around under a bright full moon one clear night.  John's yard light came on, being fooled into activating due to the darkness that briefly occurred.

Only had time for 4 shots, this was the best one

 Several minutes before Totality

closeup view of the first eclipse shot

No reaction from the nearby horses, the dog Shasta or their barn cat that I could see.

It was dusky, nice and cool with temperatures in the mid-70s.  Someone reported temperatures dropped a total of 7 degrees Farenheit during totality.

Too soon it was over of course, and we went to lunch.  Here's a movie of Scarlett showing the light levels as totality approached, occurred and then the moon started moving off the face of the sun.  The video is shown at 10x normal speed.



12 comments:

Artie & Leinen's Grand Adventure said...

Thanks for posting. Boy, it seemed to be very dark according to your video. I guess I'll have to wait until 2024 for the next one. What you wrote in the bog before was very interesting, too.
We had clouds. If we could see it, it would have been only 1/3 of it. The school kids went out anyway to try and see something.

redlegsrides said...

You're quite welcome Bridget, thanks for reading this stuff. Apparently the one in 2045 will go right through Colorado.

Learning to Golf said...

I enjoyed the video! I was subbing during the Eclipse and the school was on a rainy day lock down. I was instructed to not mention anything about it, even though the kids were all talking about it.. There were massive absences also. I guess they were worried about the little dears looking at it and damaging their eyes.

redlegsrides said...

AZ AD, I guess they figured teachers couldn't be trusted to watch out for their assigned "little dears" eh? Too bad for all involved.

Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for the comments.

SonjaM said...

Well, thank you Dom, this was exactly what I had hoped for. Great video and even more spectacular photos.

redlegsrides said...

Danke SonjaM, now that I think of it, I should have dubbed some foreboding music to the video.....

Unknown said...

Neat video, Dom. Here in Salt Lake we were at a coverage percentage somewhere in the low 90s. Even at that, we noticed the dimming, of course, and the cooling--it was the cooling that surprised me...

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Ry Austin....yeah the cooling effect was pretty "cool". ;)

Anonymous said...

Nicely done! We were in Hastings, Nebraska....glad we didn't go to Wyoming with 2 million of our closest friends.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Motoventures, I was very glad to not have to drive home the same day as all those who clogged the interstates after the eclipse.

Trobairitz said...

Great shots Dom. The video showed the dimming nicely too. We noticed how cold it got as the eclipse progressed.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Trobairitz....you've my condolences re the invasion you guys had to endure.