8/22/17

Here Comes the Sun

Success!!! We had the most marvelous time viewing the solar eclipse yesterday along with fellow sun worshipers. As it turns out the traffic predictions going to our area were as overblown as winter snowstorm predictions tend to be. At a few intersections there were back-ups, but we were barely delayed on our way to Rickreall, Oregon. Being quite early, the light was lovely as we drove along, and there were lots of barns to see along the way.




In this next image, we passed some fellow sun worshipers getting set up for the coming spectacle.




You can see a motorhome pulled off on the right in the image below.


We were nearly to Rickreall when we noticed this concrete pad off to the driver's side. Initially, we passed it by, but then turned around and came back, and it was perfect!


Nothing but open farmland all around us. Mike found this satellite image of the place.


There were no signs or fences indicating we shouldn't be there and so we pulled off and started setting up.

My friend Judy is a "birder," meaning she loves looking for birds, and so she had some rather sophisticated "spotting scopes" and cameras. It was early morning and so there was plenty of time to get set up.


There's my friend Judy when she came out from under her towel. (The sun was bright, and she was having difficulty seeing her screen.)


Off in the distance was this barn.


And there were some little things to keep us occupied and entertained while we waited.




Around 9:30, it started. These pictures of the partial were taken with my iPhone, holding some eclipse glasses over the lens.


As you can imagine, we were excited, and this meant the requisite selfie.


Then it continued on...


until it reached totality. This picture was taken using a 70-300 mm telephoto lens and a 1.4x teleconverter attached to an Olympus E-3 DSLR.


As it approached totality, the light changed, getting dimmer and dimmer. It also grew colder, and I donned the sweater I had with me. At totality, there was darkness, except for some fading sunset light 360° around the horizon. We could see the planet Mercury below the sun and to the left (not visible in my image). Also, the planet Mars was above and to the right. Higher up we could see the planet Venus. Exactly 1 minute and 48 seconds later, it was over. The time passed so quickly, we could scarcely believe it was over.


And that was when the traffic started, heading back into town. There were miles-long back-ups at every intersection requiring a stop. At that point, it didn't matter. We were so stoked, we didn't mind the traffic, and it didn't dampen our spirits one iota.


We headed into McMinnville for some lunch, and a quick stop at the fabric store, where I was able to find the background fabric I've been looking for (more on that later). For now, I wanted to give you this video simulation of the eclipse, just in case you missed it because of location or cloud cover. It looks exactly like the real thing.



If you can't see the video, then click right here.

When we got home, I walked around and took a few pictures of the blooming things in our own yard. The mint is blooming now, and covered with bees.


In fact, bees are crawling all over pretty much every flower in the garden.


The echinacea are continuing to thrill me.


And the smallest of the sunflowers has bloomed now. I thought this one had died, but it pulled itself up by the bootstraps, and there it is...blooming away.


As I'm writing this, Judy is heading back to her home in California, and it's time to get back to what passes for normal around here. I did all my housework in preparation for having a house guest, and so there's not much to do other than sew. It's a CSA pick-up day, and we're all out of coffee...which practically requires a 911 call. Except for running those errands, it's going to be an NBS day (nothing but sewing).

16 comments:

Lisa England said...

Love your eclipse photos! We went to Western Kentucky to view it in the path of totality and it was awesome. Just like you described, but I didn't get photos. There was plenty of traffic there too. A bonus for me was that we made a weekend of it and I got to visit Hancock's of Paducah as part of my eclipse viewing trip. Score!

Danette said...

Wonderful post! Thanks for the photos because where I live, we did not have a total eclipse.

DeeDee said...

Wasn't the eclipse amazing? We are in East TN right now and it was just an incredible experience. Glad you had such a great time. The video of the cats made my husband and me crack up. They look just like our Henry and Doodlebug!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

What a wide open area for viewing the eclipse - love the pattern of the airiel photo. Our quilting ladies who were here for class set up different viewing devices in our yard and we all went out to share the event. I saw that kitty video on FB - thought about doing that with Bella and Moe but don't think they would appreciate the humor.

WoolenSails said...

Love all your photos, such a unique array of barns and wildlife and wonderful that you could get the eclipse, wish i had thought to hold the glasses over the phone.

Debbie

Brown Family said...

I am so glad you got a good viewing place! It looks very peaceful ! I have enjoyed all of the photos that everyone has posted. We only got 75% here so I did not even bother to get glasses. We will have a total blackout in 7 years. I did get shadow eclipse images on the sidewalk coming through the trees. That was cool to see all those crescent images at once.

piecefulwendy said...

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. We were supposed to have a partial viewing, but we had more clouds than viewing, followed by heavy rain. It was kind of a dull thud, so your pictures were helpful in filling in the gaps. I'm glad you had a good spot and perfect views. You had some pretty snazzy glasses, by the way. Out of coffee -- yikes. Hope you are back to full throttle on that now too!

Dana Gaffney said...

Beautiful pictures! I like the flowers and barns just as much as the eclipse. Could you have seen the eclipse from your house? I like the fun of going somewhere else though.

Quiltdivajulie said...

We made it to 93% here - and the little crescent shadows were SO cool. Thanks for sharing the total experience!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

We were supposed to get 87%, but, instead we had total cloud cover. I could only get an image on my pin hole viewer a couple of times, for just a couple of seconds. Hubby was in Wyoming, and got to see it in totality. Traffic took them HOURS to get away, so, instead of reaching Utah like planned, they had to stop more than 100 miles before that (at midnight). They were with some NASA scientists for the eclipse, so, that helped lots, since both guys are science geeks.

ckrut said...

We only made it to 97% here in south central Illinois. It was amazing how much light just 3% of the sun puts out. Just south of us they had totality and their pictures showed true darkness. Traffic leaving was horrible on our state routes and the interstates. The Arby's and Wendy's in town sold completely out of food. Imagine that! Love the eclipse video. How funny!

kc said...

Awesome pictures of an awesome event, thanks for taking us along on the ride. We only experienced a dimness, and eerie light...hard to tell which was eclipse and which was Sun hiding behind a cloud. Barns and flowers are beautiful too!

Janet said...

How neat that you got to see the eclipse! We had little to see here as a)it was cloudy most of the time, b)we didn't have eclipse glasses and by the time I made the pinhole camera the whole thing was over, and c) we only got a partial eclipse here anyway. A friend of mine was in a spot with fewer clouds and got some great photos though.

gpc said...

The eclipse was amazing, but my iPhone photos were a total bust. I used welding lenses as a lens cover, and tried it with eclipse glasses, too, but absolutely nothing more than a bright ball no matter how far into the eclipse I tried it. Oh well, seeing it was good enough, especially since people like you have the photos for me to enjoy! :)

Kate said...

Thanks for sharing your photos. We had the same thing with the traffic in Kansas. None on the way out and bumper to bumper afterwards.

Lee said...

Nice shots! My aunt lives but miles and a couple more from Rickreall, on a farm, so we didn't have to travel except from the chair to the front yard :), and initially I wasn't all gung-ho about the eclipse, it just happened to be occurring during my planned three-week visit north. I'm glad now; it was pretty amazing. I took some photos on my cell phone using the glasses over the lens...they're sufficient. I was amazed that both the day before, and the day after had been overcast/gloomy in the morning, but the day of, it dawned clear and sharp.