I captured the Solar Eclipse on Monday, but it was a miracle!
For the backstory, all historical weather data showed Texas as the most likely location to have clear skies for the eclipse. Historically it did have some clouds occasionally, so I had accepted from early on that there was a chance there would be clouds blocking the view on Monday.
As the date got closer, it became clear, almost like the clouds wanted to play with us, that Texas, and specifically southern Texas where I had found a place I could camp for $599 for 4 nights. It was done through Explore Scientific and so there would be other Astro guys there too. But the weather was showing clear skies until Friday and then lasting through Tuesday, with Monday (the day of the eclipse) showing clouds with thunderstorms even. It couldn't get more worse or ridiculous. How could it be clear skies all except for the weekend of the eclipse????
So lots of people where changing their reservations to locations with now better odds to have clear skies. Several members here changed their plans. I considered it, but in the end decided to just stay put with where I was going. They way it was looking, I figured that if I changed my plans, then my original location would end up with clear skies, while my new location would get cloudy.
Early on , one of the things that made this location and going to Texas so attractive to me was that it is Texas Bluebonnet season! I have been wanting to photograph the Texas Bluebonnets for at least 20 years! So my thinking was even if the clouds wiped out the eclipse, I would still get the Texas Bluebonnets and fullfilll a desire I have had for for 20 years. I figured I couldn't lose no matter what happened.
And on Friday and Saturday after I checked into the ranch, I was able to capture not only Texas Bluebonnets but all sorts of awesome wildflowers!
We even had some clear skies at night and I was able to setup and do Deep space Astro!!!
As Monday approached. The weather stayed steadfast with clouds and thunderstorms forecasted. And sure enough. We woke up Monday morning to thick, most lower clouds! About an hour after sunrise a little blue sky was spotted, but it quickly became cloudy again. Everyone was finishing setting up their gear for the Astro. There was 100 campsites available there, and most of them were filled.
The sky was still cloudy as the time for the eclipse approached. Got about 20 mins of capturing the eclipse before some clouds blocked it for a while. About 5 or 10 minutes later the clouds lightened slightly so we could see the sun again and capture for a few minutes the advancement of the eclipse.
Well that cycle repeated itself over and over for the next 1.5 hours. It would never just clear up completely. As the time for totality approached we all looked up and saw the thickest of clouds approaching the sun.
Most people were devastated as the sun totally disappeared. The sky and ground got darker, and after a minute or two the ground noticeably got darker all of a sudden, like a switch was turned off. Then out of no where a sliver of of the sun showed through the clouds! The dark cloud had changed course!!! So I quickly started pulling off the solar filters off of the 4 cameras I had going.
As I went to remove the filter off of my best camera, my new Nikon Z8, I saw that the clutch had slipped on the Sky Guider Pro I had mounted it on, and it was pointing straight up!
I made the choice to just leave it alone as it would take too long for me to contort my body to get index it so I could line it back up. I choose instead to focus on the working cameras. And it's a good thing I made that decision , because the totality could be seen for 14 seconds (someone counted later) and then the cloud covered the sun again and we wouldn't see the sun again for a good 10 minutes, well past the totality.
But I captured Totality! Once the issue happened with the Z8, I focused on the Timelapse I had my Seestar S50 smart telescope running! I could grab a few screen grabs while the Timelapse was going! The Seestar worked perfectly! And in fact I would say it saved the day for me since the Z8 had slipped.
After those 10 minutes, the clouds turned thinner, and for the next 1 hour and 20 minutes. We could watch as the sun grew larger and larger As the moon moved away.
To me, it was a Miracle. With the weather issues, equipment issues, and still I caught it!!!!
And am still on the road, currently in White Sands, so I don't have access to the originals, but I do have one of the screen grabs I was able to get while the Timelapse was being recorded.
Very little editing on this. The Seestar has a vertical format, so that's how this looked.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
For the backstory, all historical weather data showed Texas as the most likely location to have clear skies for the eclipse. Historically it did have some clouds occasionally, so I had accepted from early on that there was a chance there would be clouds blocking the view on Monday.
As the date got closer, it became clear, almost like the clouds wanted to play with us, that Texas, and specifically southern Texas where I had found a place I could camp for $599 for 4 nights. It was done through Explore Scientific and so there would be other Astro guys there too. But the weather was showing clear skies until Friday and then lasting through Tuesday, with Monday (the day of the eclipse) showing clouds with thunderstorms even. It couldn't get more worse or ridiculous. How could it be clear skies all except for the weekend of the eclipse????
So lots of people where changing their reservations to locations with now better odds to have clear skies. Several members here changed their plans. I considered it, but in the end decided to just stay put with where I was going. They way it was looking, I figured that if I changed my plans, then my original location would end up with clear skies, while my new location would get cloudy.
Early on , one of the things that made this location and going to Texas so attractive to me was that it is Texas Bluebonnet season! I have been wanting to photograph the Texas Bluebonnets for at least 20 years! So my thinking was even if the clouds wiped out the eclipse, I would still get the Texas Bluebonnets and fullfilll a desire I have had for for 20 years. I figured I couldn't lose no matter what happened.
And on Friday and Saturday after I checked into the ranch, I was able to capture not only Texas Bluebonnets but all sorts of awesome wildflowers!
We even had some clear skies at night and I was able to setup and do Deep space Astro!!!
As Monday approached. The weather stayed steadfast with clouds and thunderstorms forecasted. And sure enough. We woke up Monday morning to thick, most lower clouds! About an hour after sunrise a little blue sky was spotted, but it quickly became cloudy again. Everyone was finishing setting up their gear for the Astro. There was 100 campsites available there, and most of them were filled.
The sky was still cloudy as the time for the eclipse approached. Got about 20 mins of capturing the eclipse before some clouds blocked it for a while. About 5 or 10 minutes later the clouds lightened slightly so we could see the sun again and capture for a few minutes the advancement of the eclipse.
Well that cycle repeated itself over and over for the next 1.5 hours. It would never just clear up completely. As the time for totality approached we all looked up and saw the thickest of clouds approaching the sun.
Most people were devastated as the sun totally disappeared. The sky and ground got darker, and after a minute or two the ground noticeably got darker all of a sudden, like a switch was turned off. Then out of no where a sliver of of the sun showed through the clouds! The dark cloud had changed course!!! So I quickly started pulling off the solar filters off of the 4 cameras I had going.
As I went to remove the filter off of my best camera, my new Nikon Z8, I saw that the clutch had slipped on the Sky Guider Pro I had mounted it on, and it was pointing straight up!
I made the choice to just leave it alone as it would take too long for me to contort my body to get index it so I could line it back up. I choose instead to focus on the working cameras. And it's a good thing I made that decision , because the totality could be seen for 14 seconds (someone counted later) and then the cloud covered the sun again and we wouldn't see the sun again for a good 10 minutes, well past the totality.
But I captured Totality! Once the issue happened with the Z8, I focused on the Timelapse I had my Seestar S50 smart telescope running! I could grab a few screen grabs while the Timelapse was going! The Seestar worked perfectly! And in fact I would say it saved the day for me since the Z8 had slipped.
After those 10 minutes, the clouds turned thinner, and for the next 1 hour and 20 minutes. We could watch as the sun grew larger and larger As the moon moved away.
To me, it was a Miracle. With the weather issues, equipment issues, and still I caught it!!!!
And am still on the road, currently in White Sands, so I don't have access to the originals, but I do have one of the screen grabs I was able to get while the Timelapse was being recorded.
Very little editing on this. The Seestar has a vertical format, so that's how this looked.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
