Tuesday, August 22, 2017

First Cut - Images of Solar Eclipse 2017

I'm like a kid on Christmas morning - I have over 150 images of the eclipse to play with, probably half of those taken during totality. It should keep me entertained for many cloudy evenings!

I spent part of my rest day at Scottsbluff looking over the treasure trove and played with some to place on Facebook and to send off to S&T. Once I get with my friend Steve Stewart (who is a digital photo pro in my humble opinion) I should have more great pics to display here. I am especially eager to work with him to generate an HDR of totality given I have some bracketed shots of the corona. The challenge with digital editing in my opinion is to enhance the shot without straying into fiction. Right now the Internet is awash in fanciful renditions of the eclipse with golden Diamond Rings and red hot prominences. And that's OK so long as you let people know it's an artistic creation - otherwise you set people up chasing unicorns at the 2024 eclipse.

So - without further ado - first takes of the Great American Eclipse!

The Sun is reduced to a thin crescent as we count down to second contact. Some sunspots are visible near the 8 o'clock position

The gorgeous Diamond Ring emerges as the Sun struggles to shine its light in the face of the advancing lunar limb

Totality! The corona splendor on full display

Third Contact - the Moon slips off the face of the Sun in this shot. Prominences and Bailey's Beads are highlights to the view.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Success!

Praise be to God - I have been able to witness the Great American Eclipse of 2017 from the Guernsey State Park in Wyoming! It was an incredible experience under nearly perfect conditions. I'll edit this entry or post supplements later when time permits to detail the entire, fabulous experience!

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Anticipation

Well we are down to less than a week now until the "Great American Eclipse" happens. Lot of planning has gone into this one - from scouting venue and getting a room reservation 18 months in advance to reading lots of articles. Even some dry runs due to all the technical tools and software I'm going to try to use in order to both view the eclipse as well as photograph it.

At first I was not sure that driving to Nebraska was the very best decision, but given the tools I'm wanting to take it has been making more sense as the weeks unfolded. And of course seeing things like Hertz cancelling people's car reservations and screwing their plans also validates my desire for control!

I continue to pray for good weather - it started off looking iffy 10 days out but it seems to be slowly improving. I'm sure if it is a matter of a couple hundred miles shift I'll be up for that on eclipse day but really hoping Nebraska comes through as a clear sky venue so I can relax and enjoy the event. If it works out it will have been 47 years, 5 months, and 14 days between my first eclipse in 1970 and this pan-American event!