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The Great American Eclipse of 2017
Monmouth, Oregon 08/21/17
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View of the park where the concert was and where we would stage for the eclipse. Western Oregon University is in the upper left of the image. In the morning, we found a great parking spot right where the "u" is on the word "Monmouth". Highway 99 W was just a few blocks to the right. It was pretty much a straight shot from there to Portland (about 65 miles away). We had a hotel reservation in Portland that evening. (click on image for larger version).
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From our experience in '98 we enjoyed being with a crowd of people. There is a huge amount of energy at these events. Our guess is that there were about 300 people who joined us in the park that morning. Being alone on a mountain top would be great but we prefer sharing the event with lots of people! Remember, the eclipse starts as a partial (you use your glasses). In our case, the first sliver of the moon hit the sun at 9:05 am. Totality would be from 10:17-10:19 (2 min, no need for glasses). Then, glasses back on until the moon has totally passed at 11:37. As totality gets closer, the energy in the crowd goes off the scale! |
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Taking pictures with our little point and shoot camera or even a cell phone would be pretty much useless. To do it right, you need to be in the big league! At the park, we met a photographer named Mike Ziegler. He had some very sophisticated camera gear. Mike agreed to send us any good images that he would capture. I think that is an 800mm Nikon lens there. He used a dark filter to get pictures before totality then removed the filter during totality. He got some absolutely awesome shots (read on!) |
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LOOK! The first sliver of the moon is crossing the sun! 9:16 am
Barb put her cell phone behind the solar filter of her glasses and was able to get this shot.
Totality would begin in about one hour! Everyone is getting very excited!
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Nitas and Car had never seen a total eclipse of the sun! We had an extra pair of solar glasses for them to use! Click here to see how happy they were! |
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Remember, you should never look at the sun during a partial eclipse without proper eye protection. You can view a partial eclipse indirectly by making tiny "pin holes". Here, Barb is letting very small amounts of light through her hand which projects an image of the eclipse onto a white board. Moments before totality, the light gets very weird, unlike dawn or dusk. Thousands of "eclipses" are projected on the ground through the trees. See some more examples of this here. |
With clear blue sky, right on schedule at 10:17 am, the moon eclipsed the sun!
The crowd was yelling, applauding and taking in the magnificence of this rare event. The next page shows Mike's images. NEXT |
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