The Eclipse

[JFL Live]

First I have to say thanks to Cuban for his post about the eclipse. [emoji106] Seeing that early on gave me plenty of time to prepare. A lot of people were scrambling at the last minute to buy solar glasses or find a spot to go.

We had a 3.5 hour ride to get to the spot I picked out in the sticks. Surprisingly a lot of people picked out the same spot which made it a little more fun. There were some nice people out there. Unfortunately we had total cloud cover when we got there. But we set up our road side viewing station anyway. If nothing else we would see it get dark. The clouds opened up a few times, just enough to get a hand full of shots. Ironically, the glasses and the solar filter I bought for the camera were simply too dark to see anything with the clouds. All the practicing I did photographing the sun was for nothing. I ended up removing the filter and took all but one of these shots with a naked lens and the camera set on automatic.

The total eclipse was completely cloud covered but it was pretty cool seeing it go dark. Like a 360 degree sunset all around us. Shortly after that it started sprinkling so we packed up and headed home… as did 20 thousand other people. Took us 6.5 hours to get home. Traffic was backed up on 35 so bad we spent an hour crawling along at 3 or 4 mph before we escaped to some side roads... which were also packed but at least moving.

I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get the money shot of a total eclipse but at least we got a few good ones and it really was a fun day. Definitely worth the effort!

If you click on this Facebook link and scroll down there’s a short video of the totality!











The infamous cell tower and the clouds we had to deal with.



The viewing station



Mrs JFL and Momma JFL


JFL [emoji2]

[Forge]

Are those sunspots or something on the lens?

[Tbeck]

You got some good shots.

We had to be up at St Catharines ON, to meet up with a friend for lunch. All we saw was the sky darkened like it was going to rain.

[JFL Live]

Are those sunspots or something on the lens?

Definitely sun spots!

[Cuban]

[emoji2] Sorry you had cloud cover, but happy you had a good day out with the fam... [emoji106]

[MattSunn]

Good shots! We had cloud cover here also. Didn't really get to see anything, although, to be honest, I wasn't really interested.

[Forge]

Are those sunspots or something on the lens?

Definitely sun spots!

Way too cool! Here in San Antonio we only had 60 to 65% coverage. We took turns watching with my welding helmet that went up to shade 13, so it was considered safe. I couldn't make out details though like your sunspots. Super cool!

[jeffcoslacker]

Definitely good shots, regardless! [emoji106] You caught a little of the diamond ring effect in one...

Yeah I was really surprised at the number of people who were on the move just due to this...last night about 7 pm I went to the next town north to go get groceries. This highway is usually pretty much deserted up this way, unless it's 8am or 5pm you are only going to see maybe a dozen other vehicles on the 18 mile drive up there...but last night I was like "Man...WTF?" there was solid cars and motorcycles heading south, many with Arkansas and Texas plates...I mean a solid line of traffic rolling, far as one could see. Really surprising to me to see that up this way. Actually more vehicles at 7pm than you'd see heading that way at 8am. I also noticed the two motels up there, which are normally empty aside from 3-5 cars, were packed lots, looked like no vacancy.

Who knew there were so many geeks? [emoji2]

[JFL Live]

You caught a little of the diamond ring effect in one...

"Effect" being the key word. I think that was the clouds doing that, but cool anyway.

The real diamond effect happened under complete cloud cover...

[Suzuki Johnny]

Since we were to only see about 71% of the eclipse I rode to the golf course for our regular Monday dog fight and played 18 holes of golf......Didn't get that much darker than a usual 1/2 hour before sunset with no clouds.......partly cloudy most of the day and when we turned the front nine the course superintendent was at the club house with a welding helmet in hand letting some of us catch a glimpse of what coverage we could see....
it was 1:21 pm straight up and sure enough it seemed about 75% coverage... ....
And it didn't rain like t was supposed to...but this afternoon it made up for whatever was lacking yesterday.....we received 4 inches of rainfall in an hour and a half.... ...back on the cart paths tomorrow dang the luck
Hopefully I'll be still around in 2028 when the next solar eclipse will make it's presence here in the deep south [emoji106]

[DevilsFan]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

[Suzuki Johnny]

Found these pics on the net this evening





This is the coolest

[JFL Live]

Here's one Brian Williams sent me from the pace station...

[old time rider]

Thanks. That is so much better than what I saw in the hay field by the cabin at the pond of a good friend. Would have never have known it was going on if not told. You could have read a book while at its darkest.A bike ride,a drink with ten or so friends was nice .Old cabin was cool inside,in looks and temp.

[SuzyRidr2]

93 % here, but it didn't get dark at all. One would have never known there was an eclipse going on without looking through the paper nerd glasses. All the kids were let down because of all the hype leading up to the event. They were expecting it to get dark and scary.

GREAT pictures! Thanks! [space]

[BlacktopTravelr]

Yep, I was expecting it to get dark here also and I was disappointed when it didn't. Not sure what happened but it was just a normal hot sunny day here.