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Great pics.

Did someone say pics? Apologies for the mediocre quality, it's hard to simultaneously fly the plane and enjoy the eclipse and get a good picture.

"Sunset", looking at clouds outside of the region of totality. This was amazing, like a 360* sunset around the darkness.



And there it is.



Zoomed-in view.



Alas, the pictures I tried to take of the lights in the town below didn't come out well, and there's no way to capture the sheer suddenness of the light disappearing or getting to see the edge of the shadow of the moon on the ground as the region of totality starts to pass, with daylight visible in the distance while still flying in darkness.

Did you say you were flying a plane, Peregrine?

Thanks to you and deadalus for the pics, those are pretty incredible!

Nice pics!

75% zone. Had some clouds, so could look at the sun directly for a few seconds. Also, the local library had a viewing event, so everyone shared glasses. The (partial) eclipse was two hours long so wasn't hard to borrow glasses for a few minutes!

 RiTides wrote:
Did you say you were flying a plane, Peregrine?

Yeah. Rented a plane, flew ~200 miles to get into the region of totality. And we arrived over our viewing spot less than 10 minutes before it started, thanks to some frustrating ground delays. Let's just say there were some anxious moments watching that ETA clock counting down...

We travelled to about 25 miles south of Casper, Wyoming. Away from city lights, the landscape appeared slightly orange during totality like sunset but without the long shadows. Very eerie and very cool event; the temperature dropped about 10 degrees during the midpoint. The corona was amazing; I can see why those who said you must experience totality to appreciate the event - it's like trying to describe the Grand Canyon to someone who's never seen it.

 amanita wrote:
I can see why those who said you must experience totality to appreciate the event - it's like trying to describe the Grand Canyon to someone who's never seen it.

Yeah. A thing I saw leading up to the eclipse was that 99% totality was much closer to 0% than 100%, and it's right. Literally a minute before totality started I was wondering if I'd completely screwed up my navigation (had to make some in-flight changes after delays and cloud problems) and gone outside the path. Unless you were looking directly at the sun you would never have known that an eclipse was happening. But then within seconds the lights went out once totality started. Miss that totality region by even a mile and I bet you'd miss the entire show.

For anyone thinking about traveling to future eclipses, like the one in 2024, don't settle for being in 99% coverage. Find a way to get to the region of totality.

Here's a flow chart if anyone was confused following the eclipse.

We live right in the path of it. Our unit had a good party for it. Was a good time, wife got some awesome pictures.

The one in 2024, if we're still here, will only be about an hour drive away, so we'll catch that one as well.

That was an incredible experience. The kids loved it and there were people cheering and fireworks and everything. Frigging awesome! I ended up driving 530miles each way to see 2 and a half minutes of total eclipse and it was totally worth it.