So my buddy in Boise really came through for me. We found a spot with a small meadow at the end of a dead end forest service road less than a mile from the center of totality. The last people we saw were about a half mile down the road from us so we had the spot all to ourselves. We had 2 minutes and 11 seconds of totality at our location. It was one of, if not THE, most amazing things I have ever witnessed!
A few of my observations from the event. First, the one I expected, was the sounds of the forest changing. There were lots of flies, cricket/grasshoppers, and other bugs buzzing around the woods but in the minutes approaching totality I noticed that the forest went completely silent. Every bug had gone quiet and the forest was quieter then I have ever heard it. Next, one thing that I didn't expect but would have if I'd thought about it was the temperature change. Over the course of the eclipse the temperature probably dropped 20 degrees. And the thing that surprised me most was how fast the darkness fell at the moment of totality. It got progressively dimmer (and cooler) as the eclipse progressed, but in those final moments as the "diamond ring" effect appeared and the sun went out it was as if someone had a dimmer switch on the world and turned out the lights. And then the view of the blacked out sun and the amazing corona were absolutely stunning! Could see the stars and planets in the sky, and it felt like about a half-moon-lit night.
Here was our viewing spot.
ViewingSpot by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
Before totality...crescent-shaped sunbeams coming through a bush.
SunbeamsBefore by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
Last of the sun before totality.
LastSun by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
Three views of totality. First shows little of the corona, but you can see the filaments streaking out from the edge of the sun. Second shows more of the corona, and third shows the full corona.
Total1 by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
Total2 by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
Total3 by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
The sun reappearing. Caused some lens flares when it did (no filter on the camera while I was shooting totality) but it created a neat effect.
Reappear by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
After totality the crescent sunbeams flipped over.
SunbeamsAfter by
Karl Camp, on Flickr
Also set up my GoPro and took a timelapse. I cropped it down to few minutes before and after the totality so it only runs 26 seconds.
https://youtu.be/x0TTZd-BfaoIt was an amazing experience. And I also had a great week camping and collecting rocks as I made my way home. I got agate from Graveyard Point, jaspers from the Owyhees, took a bunch of wonderstone off Wonderstone Mountain near Fallon, and all kinds of other things (opalite, nodules, botryoidal formations) as I wandered back down through Nevada. Also found my great uncles property in Council Idaho while I was up there. He was a rockhound but he died about 20 years ago. The house and his shop are gone, but I found a pile of rock remnants from his days as a rockhound and I was able to collect some things that were lying around, most notably a nice piece of limb-cast. I will share more pictures of my rocks as I sort and cut it.
