Solar Eclipse

Totality

 I had August 21st, 2017 marked in my calendar for more than two years now. Moving to Oregon and realizing that a total solar eclipse would occur right over our heads was fantastic news. And, one day before Anika's 25th birthday! I wish you could have been here with me to see this. Next time!

 I spent several weeks preparing for it. The path of totality passed through Oregon about an hour South of here. Of course, I was going to be there. None of this 99.5% totality nonsense for me! I have seen several partial eclipses and wanted to see the real thing.
 So, I made several trips South of McMinnville to find a good spot, plus some alternatives in case I had to relocate due to cloud cover. In the weeks leading up to it, smoke from Canadian wildfires lowered visibility considerably, but a few days before the event things cleared up.

 I was trying to decide whether high up or low to the ground would give me better picture opportunities. At totality, the sun (and the moon!) would be almost 40 degrees up in the sky. Trying to get Mt. Jefferson right below the sun into the same picture would have been cool. But I would have to use a fairly wide angle lens, which would have left the sun and the mountain tiny and give me a picture of mostly sky in between.

 Then I discovered the solar panels above. Did you know there is a site that shows you where these and other power plants are? I found that and then started looking for places with lots of cables and transformers high above. It might help create a cool picture of the eclipsing sun traveling behind a mess of wires.
 For a long time I tried to find a spot where the solar panels could serve as a mirror showing the flares during totality.
 I'm not sure it would have worked and was hesitant to risk that, plus the access road to the spot I needed to be had a gate across it with big scary signs about trespassing and doing things to people who do (this is the part of Oregon that did not vote for Hillary.)

Buell Park

 Finally, I settled on Buell County Park. Its low-lying which should give me some trees high up that can help frame the spectacle and keep people away who think this would not be a good spot to see the eclipse. Although it is recommended to experience totality in a crowd, I didn't want to be among a lot of people. I wanted to concentrate on taking pictures and I also like nature without a whole bunch of people around me explaining how beautiful and amazing it is.
 Another draw for me was the creek that runs through the park. I was thinking of using it to capture some reflections.

My setup

  Monday morning I got up early and started driving to my chosen spot. Gaston, a village of barely 600 people South of here had a traffic jam and a sheriff observing the caravan of cars and bicycles heading toward the path of totality. At 7:30 in the morning! Luckily it wasn't too bad. McMinnville was a mess but I got to my spot in time.
 I had practiced and planned several shots. One is the sequence below. I took a picture of the sun every 2.5 minutes with my 300mm lens on a cropped frame sensor camera using a 2x teleconverter. That gives me an effective focal length of about 900mm.
 My old camera, which only sometimes works, served as a backup and to help me track the sun. It also took a picture every 2.5 minutes but with a wide angle lens. I.e., it didn't move all morning while I had to adjust my other camera with the long lens every few minutes. Now I have a record of where the sun was in the sky relative to my position. I was going to use that to create one of those images you see often with scenery in the foreground and the slowly eclipsing sun moving across the sky high above.
 I didn't compose that image because it would be a lot of work, and I don't think it would look very good. Instead, I created the one below.

 Of course, the PacMan pictures were taken with a solar filter in front of the lens, while I took off the filter to capture the pictures during totality. If you click on the picture, or download the full-size image, you can see some sun spots.
 Unfortunately, I missed the international space station crossing the view. It must have zipped through between two of my images.
 The phases in the composite above are about ten minutes apart. The center image, which is the one from the top of this post, is an HDR of three images with different exposure times.

A diamond ring at the end of totality

The diamond ring above was luck. It happens at the beginning and at the end of totality when sun light passes between craters on the moon. It is a very brief moment before it gets so bright again that the filter has to go back on. The next picture in the sequence looked like this:

 I had planned a whole bunch more shots during totality, but the time was just too short. Just before totality, it kept getting darker and darker and I thought it would just continue that way into totality.
 But that is not how it went. Totality came suddenly as if someone had turned off a light switch. I was still getting ready, messing with buttons and knobs on my camera until all of a sudden I could not read the LCD anymore. Fumbling for my flashlight, trying to remember the sequence of pictures I wanted and the settings I needed took for ever. And then, just as suddenly, the light was back on. It was a weird light, but plenty of it compared to the darkness before. The sun is about 10,000 times brighter than the corona. That's why we normally cannot see it and one reason total solar eclipses are so special. Even a 99.5% eclipse still lets plenty of sunlight through, endangering our retinas and obscuring the corona.
 During totality, looking up at the sky, I thought I could touch the sun. The flickering corona was a spectacle and it seemed there should be music and sound effects for such a special visual effect. But it was completely quiet. Eerie.
 The one-hour trip that took 1.5 coming down, took 2.5 going home. It seems a lot of people spent the night in the path of totality and then all of them headed home at the same time. I stopped at a restaurant that I had seen on an earlier scouting trip. It had a big sign advertising seasonal strawberry pancakes. Since I hadn't had breakfast yet, that seemed the perfect way to celebrate my first total eclipse and wait out the traffic.

My pictures are here.

Chinese Garden

 

I'm a little behind blogging this, but I had work to do for the total solar eclipse earlier this week (see next post). Ayla and Armin have come back from their exploration of the South West and spent a couple more days visiting us before heading back to Switzerland.

It was another hot day here and we went into Portland to see the Farmers and the Saturday Market. We ran into Dave who was in line for gravy and biscuits before embarking on his fruit and vegetable shopping. When I told Anika about that she asked whether he lived in the market. Close, but not quite, but it does seem that every time we take visitors to the market we run into Dave ;-) Being a head or two taller than most people there, he is not hard to spot.

No, that's not Dave. Just another interesting character at the market.

It was too hot to spend much time at the Saturday market so we ate lunch at Lechon a "Hip Restaurant for South American Fare". Afterwards we walked to the Lan Sun Chinese Garden.

I was surprised at how much garden they were able to put into such a small area ;-) Its a beautiful place and I want go back when there are fewer people and the light is better for taking pictures.

Ayla and Armin took off the next day to head home. East, which seems right after having enjoyed an afternoon in a far East garden in the West.

My pictures from that day are here.