The Great American Eclipse of 2017

Unless you somehow have been living in a van down by the river the past few months, you're aware a total eclipse of the sun took place today, Monday, August 21st, 2017, across the United States. Living at an area where totality would achieved, I chose to experience the total eclipse right here at home.

The area of totality stretched roughly from Oregon southeast through South Carolina. This map produced by NASA shows the path through the United States:

This map, also produced by NASA, shows the path in more detail as the eclipse raced through South Carolina:

For this twice in a lifetime event (an annular eclipse occurred here in 1984), I definitely wanted to take photos, but I also didn't go to great expense given how thoroughly this event was likely to be covered  by everyone in the area.

I had tried to score some free eclipse glasses around town, but I always struck out. I decided to order some eclipse glasses off eBay.

I tested my eclipse glasses to make sure they worked. When I put them on, the sun was the only object I could see. I had tried setting up my tripod with an old pair of binoculars to make a projector, but my crude attachment (duct tape and a clamp!) made fine tuning the adjustment too difficult to bother with.

I used my telephoto lens to take photos of the eclipse, covered with a pair of the glasses shown above. My viewfinder is electronic so there was no chance of damaging my eyes that way, but there was a risk of damaging the sensor. I never left the camera lens exposed to the sun for more than a few seconds, and no damage was apparent after the event was over.

Close to the start of eclipse though, the clouds began to become more numerous. This worried me.

Soon the clouds dissipated though, leaving a clear sky.

I placed my eclipse glasses over the lens to take my photos, then later I cropped out everything else but the sun.

I repeated the process every few minutes.

I also noticed the eclipse was producing interesting crescent shaped shadows.

As totality time approached (about 2:38pm), darkness began to descend. Dogs started barking.

I temporarily discarded my eclipse glasses and took photos without them. It's weird seeing stars in the middle of the day:

I took a few photos of the totality then switched my camera over to video mode to produce this somewhat shaky result:

As soon the darkness passed, most of my neighbors who were watching the event went back inside. I wasn't about to quit on a rare event like this when it wasn't over. I alternated taking more photos and watching the NASA eclipse livestream until about 4pm, when the eclipse ended and a few clouds began appearing again.

I such had a great time! This eclipse definitely lived up to the hype. It feels a bit weird that an event that's been on the calendar for so long is now done.

It was interesting to view the temperature graph of my weather station after the eclipse ended. You can see the pronounced dip between 2pm and 4pm causes by the eclipse:

The next eclipse that will cross the United States is predicted to take place April 8, 2024. The path of totality is predicted to pass through Texas, Indiana, western New York State, and exiting through Maine.

I've uploaded my complete album of photos to the album Total Solar Eclipse - August 21 2017 on Flickr or you can click through them here:

Update 2017-08-22: It only took just 24 hours for one of my eclipse photos to become the most visited photo on my Flickr account, beating out a photo of Hooker Falls in Dupont State Forest.   Amazing!