August 21st, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse at Tryon, Nebraska - AWESOME!

I was fortunate to watch the total Solar Eclipse that occurred on August 21st, 2017. We live in (the Republic of) Boulder, Colorado ... so our nearby choices for driving were Wyoming or Nebraska. Wyoming is closer and a straight shot up I-25 ... but I figured that would draw a LOT of people (there were horrendous traffic jams on the return) so I looked at Nebraska which had a plethora of small towns on the totality line. I ended up at Kelly Ward's 40 acre farm 10 miles South of Tyron - turned out to be a GREAT venue!

I also hooked up with a pretty serious astronomer Alec Cooper who drove all the way from Ontario with his charming wife Sylvie. It was a real treat hanging with them and several images below are from his blog. I had actually put the Solar Eclipse on our family calendar a year+ earlier and a few weeks beforehand, my wife and kids decided to join me.

Forecast fog in the morning had me a bit worried, but it burned off as predicted at 10:00 ... and despite the previous day's forecast of possible clouds (beneficial for us as many people diverted toward Wyoming), we had a clear viewing experience of this (usually) once in a lifetime event ... now I want to go see another! The pictures/video below don't do it justice - it's a 100X better in real-life!!!

Use the controls to play, step, pause, slow-down, and/or speed-up the animation.

Use the controls to play, step, pause, slow-down, and/or speed-up the animation.

Use the controls to play, step, pause, slow-down, and/or speed-up the animation.

We figured the 2nd half of the eclipse would be anti-climatic after totality (it was) so we had mostly just photography gear to toss in the minivan and we were rolling out there probably 10 minutes after totality - hoping to beat the traffic home. We ended up doing 80+ on I-80 and 76+ on I-76 (!) ... with the biggest slowdown being near home as we hit rush hour traffic. Sure beats the 12+ hour drives we heard some people had coming back from Wyoming!

If you have never seen a total solar eclipse, I can highly recommend you make an effort to view one. I saw a partial solar eclipse over the Rocky Mountains 5 years earlier and it doesn't hold a "candle" to a total one! While we look pretty casual in the video, it goes by soooo quick in real-life ... plus this experience is 100X better in person.

The next total Solar Eclipse in North America won't be until 2024 - it's already on my calendar! ;-)



Photography Notes: Pictures taken with a Canon 7D and 7DM2. Lens were 11-16/F2.8, 17-55/F2.8, 18-200, and 70-200/F2.8+2xTC. This total Solar Eclipse was in mid-day so with the sun at a high angle, there really wasn't much chance of getting an interesting foreground element. I was more interested in "experiencing" the total Solar Eclipse (plus I had family along), so I didn't shoot that many photos/videos ... but happy that I seemed to capture most of it in reasonable quality. BTW, it was very handy to have set the time *precisely correct* on my camera bodies beforehand ... especially if you want to capture the ISS transitting the eclipsed sun.

The corona pictures were taken with a 7DM2 at 400mm (70-200/F2.8+2xTC) with aperture priority of F5.6 and ISO 1600. Shutter speed ended up being 1/200s. When/if there is a next time, something like a 500/F4 would be ideal since you don't want to crop too close. Plus I'd try some (very wide) exposure bracketing to capture more of the corona ... although you'd ideally have absolutely no clouds/haze in the air. I also could put an intervalometer on the camera and have it just fire off pictures ... although unless you have a tracking mount, you'll need to re-orient the camera. Finally, note in the video that I had the camera "lined" up with the sun beforehand but pointed down. I then just need to do a vertical alignment, shoot my pictures, and then I "safe" the camera by pointing it down ... since you don't want the uneclipsed sun to fry your sensor. BTW, using daylight color temperature, the corona actually comes out as white (surprise!) ... but I liked the "fire" effect so I boosted the Color Temperature to 50,000K in post-processing.

More pictures of the partially eclipsed sun would have been nice - either through projection (should have done the large monocular image on my shirt) or if I had gotten a solar and/or Hydrogen-Alpha lens filter. We were intent on leaving as soon as totality was over (plus my son "lost" his wallet in his packed up tent!), so I didn't spend as much time shooting this stuff before and we left after.

The video was shot at a fixed exposure of F4.0, ISO 800, and 1/60 second. This ended up being a reasonable compromise between being too dark at totality and too bright before/after ... it's cool to see how much the light changes. I'd probably bump it up a stop next time. Also would have been good to put an iPhone (or something that does auto-exposure) next to it and see how that turns out. Plus I should have done a "video" intro - i.e. "here we are at Tryon, Nebraska two minutes before totality"

It's amazing how little change there is in the light until the sun is almost completely eclipsed ... and then it changes dramatically, even as our eyes are auto-adjusting to it. My shots an hour beforehand were F5.6, ISO100, 1/400s. Alec's shot of our van about 15 minutes before totality was shot at F8, ISO200, and 1/400s - same exposure. However, my picture taken 2.5 minutes before totality (which is *less* exposed) was shot at F4, ISO800, and 1/60s ... that's over 6 stops difference!!!

I would have liked to have gotten a (very dark) night sky shot with my family in the foreground. But I had some technical problem (aperture was non-adjustable in manual mode due to lock slider being engaged) plus they weren't into it. If I had taken more shots (and especially if I had hooked up my laptop for viewing), a shade structure is critial for that. I had one providing general shade for people/stuff, and loaned the other one to Alec for his work on the telescope as he had his hands full with that.

There was always some coulda/shoulda ... but hopefully there will be a "next" time and I'll refer back to these notes to help guide me.