[Magdalen] Eclipse Photos

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

We joined a tour that visited several national parks and stayed in Jackson
Hole the for eclipse. We had the editor of Astronomy Magazine along to give
us some technical advice, which was very helpful.

He had some advice for those seeing the eclipse for the first time, and
thinking of trying to get photographs.
"DON'T!"
The eclipse would be there for only two minutes of totality, and if we were
fussing with our camera, there was a good chance we would miss it all, and
would not get good shots anyway. "Just enjoy it. It will be gone before you
know it."

One thing I never even heard of till the week of the eclipse was the
mention that in the moments before and after totality, on the ground you
see all of these ripples like waves. It's especially visible on a flat
surface like concrete, they said.

Our group was welcomed to the grounds of the Teton Science School, a 501 c
3 outfit that educates kids of all ages about the environment. A very nice
little campus. I grabbed a rocking chair, put it in a place where I would
have a good view, and kept my filter glasses handy. At the moment of first
contact, There was no apparent difference to the sun, but after a minute or
two, one could see a tiny sliver of the sun was gone. As the sun's surface
area continued to be reduced, we were amazed that there was no difference.
Finally someone observed that it was getting cooler. The different
appearance of things others had talked about did not happen for me.

Someone observed that there was a darker area of the sky. "That's the
shadow, coming toward us." Then things started to get really neat!

The area got quite darker than it had been. With absolutely flawlessly
clear skies, it was not really very dark, but it seemed dark. Cooler too. I
looked down at the ground and called others attention to the rippling waves
on the ground. I understand this is from the disturbances in the atmosphere
that are there all the time, but with the sun's light being broad enough
that they are never defined. Just before totality, the actual light is
coming from a source almost like a point, so the atmospheric disturbances
show up.  It was truly awesome.
As that last bit of sun shone, someone shouted, "There's the diamond ring!"
And indeed, there it was.
Suddenly, the sun was totally covered. Whoops of delight. A few gasps.
"Filters off!"
There was the sun's corona, spread so magnificently, stretching out into
space far more than the sun's diameter it seemed. I didn't have a chance to
use binoculars or telescope, but others were clicking away and hoping for
the best.
A couple of minutes, and it was over, and the sun began to emerge ("Filters
on!"), along with the wavy lines on the ground as before.
There was some applause.
That was what they were calling "third contact," and there would be some
time to "fourth contact," when the sun was back to itself again. But for
many of us, the real show was over.

That evening, the entire group that had booked various tours to see the
eclipse at Jackson met for a banquet, a champagne toast, and a look at what
some of the photographers had done. One shot was head and shoulders above
the rest: a picture of the totality, showing the features of the moon in
earthshine, the corona, and a tiny dark spot that turned out to be a
looping arc of solar prominence. It was actually bright red, but against
the background of the corona, it looked dark.

We are already making plans for the next eclipses.





James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 10:57 AM, James Handsfield <jhandsfield at att.net>
wrote:

> I have made public the photos of the eclipse on my FB account -
> Facebook.com/jhandsfield.
>
> -------------------------------------
> Education is its own reward, both for the individual and for society.
>
> Jim Handsfield
> jhandsfield at att.net
>
>