April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Trip

On April 8, 2024, I loaded up the truck with a few things and a few friends, and headed south to Ohio to view the total solar eclipse.

Having learned my lesson in 2017, I stayed away from both expressways and larger cities. We went to a town of a few thousand and viewed the event from a small city park. The trip down and back were entirely unencumbered by traffic since we went on small two lane country roads. By contrast, in 2017 we went on expressways and spent hours sitting stopped on the road.

We did set up some camera equipment, but an important rule of solar eclipses is to NOT spend all your time messing with cameras. Your first priority should be to EXPERIENCE the eclipse. Photography comes second

 

Other than eclipse glasses, I set up a 360 camera to run the whole time, plus an SLR with a 600mm lens and solar filter.


 I put an intervalometer on it and set it to take a photo every 30 seconds, and started it a few minutes before first contact. I loaded an app that uses my GPS location to sound an alarm a few minutes before each event (first contact, totality, end of totality, etc). This gave me the opportunity to remove the solar filter exactly at totality and get it back on just as totality ended.

Here's the footage from the 360 camera. As you watch it be aware you can use your mouse to scroll around and look up, down or in any direction, or if viewing it in a VR helmet you can just look around.


 

Here are a few photos that I took:

A few minutes prior to first contact

 

A few minutes after first contact

The major sunspot about to be "eaten"

TOTALITY!

A crop of one of my best shots taken during totality

And it's over, the sun begins to emerge

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