After 30 years, I'm finally going to see a total solar eclipse. Also, Potato World is a thing. angielski

I’m sitting in a dark hotel room on the eve of my first - and possibly only - total solar eclipse, with my partner and step-son, and I am positively awash with emotions.

I have been waiting for this day for 30 years, since my first partial eclipse in May of 1994. That was an underwhelming experience for many reasons, but not the least of them was that I had nothing and no one to view the eclipse with.

Three decades, two astronomy degrees, 5 years operating a planetarium, and 5 years as a guide at the local observatory later, and I’m fully prepared. Today, I have more viewing glasses than i have fingers, two cameras with filters, I have my family, and I am smack dab in the middle of the path of totality.

And the forecast calls for clear skies.

I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that this is actually happening for me. That everything looks like it’s going to work out.

The only disappointment is that I discovered that Potato World exists - it’s the New Brunswick potato museum (and it’s next door to my hotel) - but it’s closed!

RememberTheApollo_,

I’ve got a few years of waiting on you, but never made an eclipse a priority to see. This one was close enough where I had no excuses. And I had the day off with the kids. We drove many hours to get to Plattsburgh, NY in the hopes that the event wouldn’t be obscured by clouds, we had a choice between that and Ohio. Looks like Ohio did pretty well, we had a high cirrus cloud layer but it wasn’t enough to disrupt the view. I wouldn’t call myself an astronomy buff, but Space has always held huge interest in my life, so dragging the family out for this event was kinda a big ask because they weren’t necessarily into it. I hoped the trip would be worth it, both weather-wise and stellar phenomena-wise.

Worth it. There’s no words to describe the ethereal, silvery ring that magically appears during totality. Bailey’s beads and more. Sure, there are photos and videos, but that doesn’t do justice to the play of light in the environment surrounding the viewer, the night-yet-still-day incongruity.

Everyone is taking home some joy from the experience.

We tried to capture a photo of total, but due to a comedy of errors, it didn’t happen, so the memories will just have to stay in our heads.

I hope anyone near an eclipse’s path of totality won’t write it off if they have a choice. Go see it. Truly a sight.

Hope your viewing went well, too.

XeroxCool,

This is the kind of thing where even if kids don’t seem to really be interested in it, even if they don’t seem impressed, it’s such an incredibly rare and unique event (close enough to home) that they will always remember it. Maybe not to the point of thinking about it every week, but in the sense that every mention of solar eclipses, at the very least, will remind them of this one moment in totality with you. You can plant some seeds for interests without knowing what will take root while still knowing the seed stays there.

RememberTheApollo_,

Certainly hope so, and the memories of the better part of a day in bumper to bumper traffic going home to fade.

essteeyou,

Hope you got a good view!

Trainguyrom,

My wife only went because I was hellbent on seeing the eclipse at totality (we saw the last October’s eclipse and 2017 both from around 90% coverage). Afterwards she said “the Grand canyon ain’t got shit on a solar eclipse” and we are both still in shock for how amazing of an experience it was.

The wonky colors as day slowly turned to night, the sudden whooshing shadow as totality began, the burning ring of fire in the sky then the light whooshing back as totality ended, the cacophony of yelps by folks too slow to put their eclipse glasses back on. It was a hell of an experience

rolaulten,

I’m in a similar boat. Flew across the country because after “missing” 2017s I immediately felt regret. Now I’m debating Europe in 2026.

But the colors. Can someone who understands this stuff please explain to me why a simple reduction in light in the lead up to (and following) totality makes all the colors seem “wrong”?

Kichae,

Ot depends on which colours you mean.

Macallan,

So, How was it? Did it live up to your expectations? Did you get any good pictures?

Kichae,

Pictures turned out ok! I should have done a dry run for my totality setup, as I wanted to do some bracketed exposures and assumed my DSLR would let me do that the same way in live display mode as it does in optical viewfinder mode, and it… didn’t. But the pictures I did get are a reasonable, if insufficient facsimile of the experience.

As for the real deal… I’ll have to update everyone once I’ve processed it. It was clear as crystal, and a perfect day. I was totally unprepared in every way that mattered. I don’t yet have words.

Macallan,

Sounds like it was enjoyable. My son’s mother took him out of school and drove them 2.5 hours to go see it in totality.

AnUnusualRelic,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

That seems like a lot of work for potato world.

Sunsethughes,

Dude! I saw the eclipse from Bouctouche and my God it was incredible. Please let us know what you thought!!

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