In the last few minutes before totality, the light thinned quickly as the western horizon grew darker. It got pleasantly cooler, the wind calmed, and it got quieter-although that last part I think had a lot to do with traffic finally stopping. They figured they’d better start chirping louder. As though part of you is in a blissful, waking dream. We had about an hour to go before first contact, which was just enough to set up the tracking mount for the tight 300mm views, and then low tripods for wide angle time lapse and video.Īs the light grew noticeably thinner, it occurred to me that it looked a bit like old westerns where they would film in daylight and then process darker for nighttime scenes…except not black and white. DEET was applied to pants and shoes on behalf of ticks, sunblock misted on, and chairs and snacks broken out. Nearby hills hid the rest, but this turned out to be just right. From there, we had an excellent view of the horizon from the northwest to the southeast. Amanda got us honed in on a perfect flat plateau at the top of the ridge on the east side of the road. About 3 miles south of the center line, we found our spot (42° 13.594 N -103° 47.341 W). The LeadupĪs we got closer to the center line, prime elevated spots and field access pullouts were mostly populated…again, a lot like storm chasing. It was a massive relief to wind up in that spot after the earlier fears. No worries about cirrus drifting in from the south, and no cumulus field building in from the north. The best part of all was the nearly cloudless sky. It was probably astronomy clubs and caravaning buddies for that latter option. It was a lot like storm chasing modes-some people prefer the more isolated approach, while others like the convergence. It was interesting to see the mix of scattered cars and then larger groups in different spots along the roadside. As we headed north, farmland gave way to sand hill country-which I think is beautiful to begin with. Centerline was about 24 miles north of town, and I figured within 5 miles of that would be good. We took the last bio break at a very crowded Maverick station in Scottsbluff, popped some Immodium to freeze the pipes up a bit, and then decided Highway 29 north of Mitchell would be the spot. Scottsbluff was about the worst it got, but was mostly just like a heavy rush hour situation along the main drag. Traffic was gradually growing as people filtered into the area, but it wasn’t gridlock. Satellite showed the stratus layer dwindling in the far western Panhandle, and it looked like we had enough time. We drove a couple hundred miles along dark roads, heavy with fog, until sunrise started to lift the deck a ways west of Ogallala. The forecast looked a bit better by then, but clouds were still threatening from north and south and I just didn’t want to chance it. So we kept on for Broken Bow and planned for a very early drive the next morning, westward along the path of totality. That would put us closer to cloudless areas the morning of the eclipse, but it would also amount to staying overnight outside the path of totality…with scarce road options if there was a huge traffic problem. At our overnight stop in Burlington, Colorado, I almost considered bailing on Broken Bow the night before to get the closest thing available to eastern Wyoming-basically Rapid City, South Dakota. The days leading up were converging on a very cloudy forecast for much of Nebraska and I was seriously worried. Our long road trip took us 1,060 miles from Flagstaff to Broken Bow, Nebraska. I’ve got more details in a techno section after this post. After that, it was just letting the cameras do their thing and and popping a filter off before totality (and back on after). During the lead up to the eclipse, I worked out a script using Solar Eclipse Maestro and then budgeted about an hour of fidgeting and setup before first contact. I’m a front loader, so the idea hooked me. If one practiced and got set up early enough, it might just work. I started reading more about scripting and automating shots-something that would run the exposures with minimal intervention. Which is why I definitely planned not to photograph it either. For two and a half minutes, I just wanted to revel in it. But I couldn’t shake the thought that for such a rare, powerful and fleeting event, I didn’t want to be locked into a practical frame of mind. For the last couple years, I tossed around the idea of sketching it-for astro stuff, that’s always been what I do.
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