This is so long overdue that it's hardly worth posting, but I wrote the following while at the airport the day after the eclipse. May as well post it instead of the recycle bin. I'm making a related post in ride planning as well.
Amazing! Just one of the many words I would choose to describe the experience.
After waiting out a short-lived but intense (by BC standards) wind storm in Casper, WY, I set up my tent in a field 15 minutes west of town. Kudos to the State for opening the day-use parks for camping and bringing in porta-potties.
I had planned on viewing from a spot just east of Shoshomi on Hwy 20/26 that was quite close to the center of the path. I wanted to get as far west as possible as I had to book it north to Billings to store the bike and catch a flight home. Unfortunately the gas station my GPS said was 11 miles ahead had long since turned into dust and the next station appeared to be 40 miles away. I had a flashing ‘F’ followed by 15 already on the display. I was already past the point of no return and not too worried since one of these 1000’s of RVs must have some gas. Nevertheless I came back off the throttle and the fuel consumption stayed around 60 mpg give or take.
Then I came across this little broken down café/service center called “The Bright Spot”; ironic I know. There were about a dozen people in the parking lot and three telescopes set up; one of them looked pretty elaborate – hooked up to a laptop and some other equipment. I pulled in and asked the first by-stander if there was gas nearby. He replied that he had just filled up (his SUV was blocking the pump).
Well long story a little trimmed down, I spent the next 3 hours with the small crowd which included folks from Holland, Germany, Texas and Colorado.
This café was something out of an old movie – the best way I can describe it would be with pictures, but it certainly had character. Most entertaining was a local named Bill Miller, an elderly gentleman who parked his shiny new yellow Camaro in the middle of the parking lot, got out. Looked around and shook his head.
“Good morning Mr. Miller,” said the owner’s teenage daughter, “Have you even seen an eclipse before?”
“Young lady,” he replied, “I’m 76 years old. I’m sure I have. I’m just here for a beer”.
He sat in what was sure to be his usual spot and had his Bud, followed by a chaser of what I suspect was JD then left. No kidding.
Thanks to the great conversation, the waiting seemed to fly by and was inevitably interrupted by an alarm from my phone stating three minutes to totality. Several of us scrambled to get our cameras set up despite having been warned from all the sources from previous days to “be prepared”.
Well, the darkness really became noticeable now. You had to kind of purposely notice that the it wasn’t as bright out as it should be but the hue of the sky was unchanged unlike it would have been when the sun is lower in the sky for that level of brightness.
I was really looking forward to seeing the shadow move across the land as the full eclipse approached; but, I didn’t want to miss that moment of full obscurity. So, I set my hand held camera on a post and started recording the landscape to the west while I used my brand-new, unfamiliar smart phone to live-stream the event to my mom and a few others.
Well, when the sun finally did disappear, I was staring at the out of focus over exposed image on the phone’s display. Balls! I quickly turned around to look at the shadow which of course had passed over and was a few miles to the east by now – duh – only to further notice the camera on the post was flashing “busy”. Aw crap! To hell with the technology. I put both in my pockets and spent the remaining minute and a half staring at the sky with my lower jaw practically detached from my face. Words and pictures just simply cannot describe what I saw. But I will state that if I am still mobile in 2024 I may make the journey again to see the next eclipse. It is that worth it!
The most amazing moment was the ‘diamond ring ‘ effect as the totiality ends. In an instant, you’re blinded from the powerful light combined with your already dilated pupils. Whaty I found amazing however was how that minuscule speck of the sun peeking around the round corner of the moon had that much luminosity to instantly go from night to day. Within a few seconds, it was daylight again with the perceived ambient light about the same as full noon with grey sunglasses on even though the sun was still 95% obscured.
Despite Mary – the café owner – announcing to the everyone that there is free cake and coffee for all, the crowd suddenly became strangers again, with a few of us shaking hands before going our separate ways. That guy with the elaborate telescope? Turned out he was a scientist of sorts and had to rush into town to upload the data to (NASA?) whomever. He did take my e-mail down with the promise of sending me some of the data and media he recorded. I haven’t heard from him yet though.
With a full tank of gas, I resumed course westbound hitting bumper-to-bumper traffic 20 minutes later in Shoshomi. I was stuck in it for about 3 hours and about 130 kms as the temperature rose from a fresh 70F to sweltering 92F. I decided to break my oath of ATGATT in favour of a heavy layer of SPF 95.
