Our Eclipse 2017 Trip (Part 2)

I shared half the story yesterday and then I got distracted and it got late and before I knew it, it was well past bedtime and I had never finished my post. So I decided to roll with it and today I’m sharing Our Eclipse 2017 Trip (Part 2). Click here to read Part 1.

When I left off yesterday, we were all set at the rest area and awaiting the beginning of the eclipse. The first pic that we took and published was done by my son. There was a lady at the rest stop with a huge telescope and they asked if they could look through it.

She not only let them, but she also let them take a picture:

Someone pointed out that it looked like an egg yolk… I’d say they were right 🙂

The kids sort of spread out, made sandwiches and every few minutes would take a turn looking. Above is a pic of my Daddy having a look! We also took a couple of pics with our cell phones as the eclipse progressed (using the eclipse glasses over the phone lense):

My youngest kiddo Asher enjoyed looking – but he wasn’t overly impressed… haha!

While we waited, we met another family nearby who was also waiting. My Mama talked to them a lot more than I did, but the daughter, Veronica, offered to take a family pic for us:

Then she emailed it to me! It turned out so great! She also took one more pic that I’ll share below. And then the minutes counted down to totality.

I didn’t have a special lens for taking solar photography, so I was terrified to even attempt a picture with my camera (a Canon 6D) prior to totality. I had read too many articles on how it could ruin my camera and I did not want to risk that.

So I had it set up on a tripod and I’d set all the settings to what I hoped would be good for taking the “dark” pics, and I left it alone. More than anything, I didn’t want to spend the 2+ minutes of darkness messing with my camera and not truly experience the real-life event. Here are my pics and my experience…

(my first picture)

Once I had my camera set and pointed toward the sky, we watched and waited (looking through the eclipse glasses). Then when it got dark and the eclipse was at it’s peak, I was astonished at how beautiful and eery it was. The crickets were chirping, and for a moment, all the people got quiet. It suddenly got cooler and there was a gentle breeze. It was completely mezmerizing.

(when I realized I didn’t have the sun centered, I adjusted a bit and took a few more pictures)

When I read that being in the path of totality or not would be like “night and day” – I was convinced I wanted to be in it. To demonstrate how true it ended up being  – my husband took this pic from his work parking lot and this was in the 85% area at it’s peak:

He was able to see the crescent shape of the sun with it 85% covered when looking through eclipse glasses – but without the glasses, 15% of the sun was still pretty much “regular” daylight. I heard the same thing from people who were even in the 96-99% areas… if you weren’t in the 100% zone, it just wasn’t the same experience at all.

Anywho… I still wanted to get a picture if I could, so I squatted down and took 18 pictures – on 2 different settings. They looked like good pics on my viewer so I decided it was enough and enjoyed the rest of the eclipse just by watching. I should note – while I was squatted down taking pics (with my camera pointed straight up, I had to get down to make sure it was pointed at the sun), my kids and parents pulled out their phones/cameras and took some pictures too.

We could see stars but I was pretty sure they weren’t showing up in my pics, so I made one adjustment to my exposure time, and took the last few pictures. When I got my pics back on my computer and enlarged them – sure enough – I got some of the stars or planets (circled below):

Somewhere in this time, our new friend Veronica took another pic, that she also emailed to me:

I absolutely love it!! It captured all of us except my son Christian (no idea where he was) plus a few random strangers 😉  From left to right is my daughter Sarah, my Daddy, a random person, me squatting next to my son Asher beneath my camera on a tripod, my son Caleb (ghost-like), my Mama, and my son Noah (in bright orange)… then more random people.

So… we all ooohed and aaahed for 2+ minutes and then as if a switch were flipped, it was almost instantly daylight again. We didn’t rush to leave the rest area – it was just so congested, but within half an hour or so, we were all packed up and on the road again…

I know a lot of people that weren’t in the path of totality really thought it wasn’t a big deal but having been in the heart of it – I’d have to disagree. Our 7+ hour drive to see the full eclipse was welll worth the drive and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. My parents and all of my kids (with the exception of maybe Asher) absolutely were blown away by the whole experience!!

Other than a very, very long drive home, the only other thing I want to mention is our stop into Metropolis, Illinios. Since my husband and kids are super hero / comic book fans, when Veronica (the new friend we met) recommened that we stop into the “home of Superman” on our way out, we listened. It was only a 10 minute detour from our route and it was a really fun stop!

I added more photos to a Facebook album here, but here’s one for you :

And that’s that. The only other notable thing was a late-night stop by Krispy Kreme once we got back to Mississippi. I mean… we don’t get those delicious bites of heaven often, so when we’re close, we must stop!!

I hope ya’ll enjoyed this little venture away from my normal cakey posts… and I’m off to bed!!

Have a SWEET weekend!

Rose