The Eclipse Conspiracy

(it's difficult to see, but this emoticon is using solar glasses)If the weather permits, I can can cross one of two natural phenomenoms I've always wanted to experience, off my list:1. total eclipse
2. Northern Lights

Got those two bagged, but I want more of each.I caught a magnificent display of Northern Lights on a night-long layover in Anchorage en route to Seoul for my first Asia posting in the early 70s.Every time since that the lights dipped south, cloud cover obscured them -- that, or vapor trails loaded with mind control agents.Who's to know?

Hey Tany,I read your other interesting entry. So this will be eclipse #4 for you? Wow. This will be #1 for me.As I understand it, the "quality" of the eclipse/corona will depend on: variable distance of all three bodies, the weather, solar activity, and ???Therefore I presume your photographic results from three events are all very different? Or not so much?

Up here in NW WI we get to see Northern Lights quite often. Still a thrill every time. Earlier this winter we went down to the south shore of Lake Superior, which is about 5 miles from my house, and watched them over the big lake.

"Got those two bagged"I'm envious.Living in Western NY, whenever there is a major solar flare that is reported, the northern lights are sometimes reported as far south as Pennylvania. About five years ago, I was watching the late night news and they reported such an event. I begged my girlfriend to drive north with me but she was too tired. So I gave her my best guilt a catholic upbringing could give me, and she relented. Of course it was winter, so after driving an hour north through snow to get the best darkness, we waited outside for 30-60 minutes in the shivering darkness. Should have brought some hot chocolate with a little peppermint schnapps. Errrm, with a lot peppermint schnapps.And of course, . . . there was no northern lights. I just used up my one guilt trip that I will never get back again. Rats.My travels often had me flying near the arctic circle. My face would be hard pressed against the window, . . . but the lights in all their majesty and glory would never show themselves to me.*sniff*

Envy!

I just realized that my wife and I will be flying during the eclipse. We will be in the air a little early so I doubt we will experience much.
We leave Charlotte, NC at 1pm and land in Minneapolis at 2:45. We will be going right over the path. Hopefully our flight is delayed an hour.

Well if you ever want to make a run north when they are forecast you have a place to stay. Usually I just need 15 mins notice.
I think I am a little desensitized to them. Last year we went to watch them with a person who has never seen them before. My wife and I though meh, the other person was enthralled.
There is a large field just down from the house that has a good view north toward the big lake. Unfortunately, the lights of Duluth, MN can be seen too. We get some good views there too.

Thanks for the invite. Just a head's up, I've accepted similar invitations on a whim.I have two friends who just last month went on a tour to see the lights in Northern Canada. There was no guarantee they'll see them, but the odds with this date were supposedly high.I haven't heard their report yet, . . . their silence may be telling.

No, this is only #3 for us.
#1 1979
#2 2017
#3 2024. i don't think our weather has much affect on how the eclipse appears except either you see it or you don't, if it's cloudy. The size and shape of the corona and its brightness are different each eclipse and that seems to depend on where we are in the sunspot activity cycle.The 1979 eclipse had a very small corona, but the 2017 0ne was really spectacular.This 2024 eclipse may be very, very spectacular because we are in the peak of sunspot activity.A couple notes about eclipse photography:If you are shooting with a DSLR and telescope or telephoto you can safely shoot during the period of totality.Use the RAW (ie Nikon = NEC, Canon = CR2, etc.) setting rather than JPG, 14 or 16 bit and Adobe RGB. I use ISO 640.I set my camera to shoot High Speed Continuous bursts and set it to bracket at .3 and .7 (I change that setting back and forth repeatedly) stop increments, so each burst is 4 underexposed shots, plus a single exposed shot, plus 4 overexposed shots. I use a remote shutter release on my camera so 1 button push fires the whole 9 shot burst. I keep repeating this process through out the totality. Set your camera to very the shutter speed, NOT the aperture for bracketing.It turned out that there was a lot of subtle detail in the overexposed shots that I was able to resolve by dialing back the exposure during the processing of the raw images in Adobe Photoshop. I was really, really pleased (and surprised) with these shots!! If the weather is cloudy don't give up until it's over, because a phenomena that has been reported from numerous other eclipses is that minutes before totality the clouds often break. This is hypothesized to be cause by the temperature drop along the path. I read this recently and will try and find the reference.This week's NOVA on PBS is about this eclipse, lots of great info for preparation.

Wow, many thanks for the detailed info and recommendations Tany.Your recommended settings will capture a super wide gamut of light. Is this necessary because the corona requires an extended captured range, or is it for the safety-net of capturing such an extreme event?I have an older Nikon D7000 that disappointingly only shoots 3 bracketed shots at a time. When traveling, I often shoot in this mode for most of my shots, as I hate it when I blow-out highlights or can't retrieve shadow info.I don't wont to photograph throughout the entire totality, I do want to experience the event mostly sans camera. So with only a minute to spare, I think I should practice with the camera before the event so I wont get flustered. (Sheesh, I'm already panicking. What was that ASA? Why is the histogram so dark, . . . oh, . . . right, . . . forgot to take lens-cap off)Again, thanks for the tips, especially the one about the possible cloud dispersement at the end.

The temperature drop was something I wasn't prepared for when I saw the 2017 eclipse, and was probably helped by the arid climate. I had no idea the temp could drop that much that fast. It added to the eeriness of the whole experience.

Solar Eclipse Will Reveal Stunning Corona, Scientists Predict, by Meghan Bartels. 4 minute read from scientific American. The Latest Weather Forecast along the Total Solar Eclipse Path, by AndreaA Thompson. 6 minute read from scientific American.

This is completely bonkers, apparently a bunch of conspiracies have popped up about the eclipse. The one I just read is the dimwits think the Rapture is happening on April 8, 2024.I haven't seen anything suggesting that they should watch the whole sequence without proper eye protection...yet, but that sounds like a wet dream to all the nutjobs that behaved dangerously during the pandemic. I guess they won't need material eyes where they are going and watching the eclipse is a part of the rapture process!! The world and especially America has morphed a lot since the last Great American Eclipse.By the way, I have new Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Eclipse T-shirts for this trip. And I also packed my similar shirts from the last eclipse...this is what happens when you are a "double nerd" science and classic rock.

During a partial eclipse in Southern California circa 1991, the only things noticeable were that the sunlight seemed only slightly dimmer (something what would have gone right past us if we weren't expecting it), but we definitely felt the drop in temperature.The company I was working at the time made computer-controlled greenhouse control systems, part of which is a weather station. The computer also compiled sensor data from the weather station and the zones in the greenhouse. We immediately printed out the weather station data for the eclipse and were surprised at the very definite drops in the readings, especially the size of the drop in light. I saved that printout for posterity, but have long since lost track of it.