Eclipse Diaries, The Day After

Magic.

This is the best word to describe how it was.  Totality was magic.  Watching the light change as the moon eased its way over the sun's path, seeing the sun whittle to a sliver, and then - totality.  There is nothing like it.  An eclipse is neat.  Totality is magic.

We got out lawn chairs and eclipse glasses.  A flock of four sandhill cranes flew over, squawking their gravely vibrato.  Minutes later, three elk - including a yearling from this year - crossed the highway just to our east viewing point.  The darkening of the sun had just begun.

Yellows changed to silvers as time ticked on.  Shadows became sharp-edged and the dried flowers standing a foot off the ground looked 3-D.  The radios and pagers were hushed as everyone had settled in for the show.  Cars and people were everywhere they could be under this umbrella of totality.  The park was packed.

An early morning kidney stoned called one ambulance into service.  They were able to return in plenty of time.  There would be no county-wide calls for fire or ems until far after the 11:36 totality.  Thank you everyone.  Thank you all so very much.

A firefighter gave up looking through his telescope to make some pictures happen.  I wanted to get an image showing how emergency services were ready during this magical event.  Three firefighters jumped into their gear, rolled the engine up into the parking lot, and charged the master stream for this unique image.  The photo went viral, locally at least.  I spent most of totality (we had a bit less than 2 minutes in our north location) adjusting shutter speed and f-stops in hopes to get one good image.

Mercury popped up in the darkened sky.  The light was very similar to that just at dawn, although the horizon was bright all the way around - north, south, east, and west.  Despite being completely blocked by the moon, the amount of light from the sun was surprising.  As I worked through various shutter speeds, to expose for the engine and firefighters, my lens accumulated the sun's light.  The dark pin hole shows the eclipse.  It is hard to be prepared for photographing an eclipse!!

Here, a series of images from the brief two minutes of totality.  Two minutes and a memory of a lifetime!!

Interesting image, but not what I was looking for!! 

Thank you Lieutenant Preuss and Lamoureux and Firefighter Schweitzer for giving up your Totality Time so we could have this image! 

Here, a local news reporter mixes up his fire stations!!  This was not taken in Hoback and the firefighters from Station 4, I am sure, are not pleased.  Still, nice to give a shout-out to many who were ready to answer the call the day the moon passed the sun's path.

Standing By article, click on words to read.