Written and Compiled by Robert D. Stephens          Page 6
 

  
 
 
  The wind seemed to pick up as first contact approached.  Several people, especially Dan Hurley had elaborate rigs while some had simpler video camera setups.  First contact came as expected at 6:43 PM with a chunk being nibbled out of the bottom of the Sun.  It was almost an hour between first and second contact.  Some of the best views were with the naked eye – of course protected with eclipse glasses.  
     
 
 
 
     
  The group had fun with some pin hole projection signs commemorating the eclipse.  Things went downhill when ‘Down Under’ was projected on various bottoms.  Dennis di Cicco had put a Stellafane sign on his tripod which quickly got modified with a RTMC sign.  
     
 

Totality started quickly at 7:41 PM and people started hooting and hollering.  How to describe an eclipse? 

I started watching through my 300mm telephoto lens a few seconds before second contact.  I watched the diamond ring and then Baily’s Beads shrink away.  There wasn’t much of a diamond ring; it appeared to me somewhat more like a diamond necklace. 

I started taking my first sequence of pictures with my 300mm lens, but the camera would not fire.  I tried manually triggering the shutter while looking through the binoculars, but the camera still would not fire.  I quickly abandoned that attempt and continued to take wide angle photographs while looking through binoculars.

Through the binoculars, I saw the chromosphere go completely around the Sun.  There were not any prominences of note, but there was a lot of detail on the inner corona.  The corona only visually extended out from the Sun about a solar diameter.  I did not notice it at the time, but in photographs, the Sun appears squashed like a football.  It has been dubbed by Steve Edberg as the ‘Rugby Ball’ eclipse.

  
 
     
 

The most memorable view was with the naked eye.  The Sun appeared larger than normal due to it being only four degrees off the horizon, the well known ‘Moon Illusion.’  I then watched Bailey’s Beads develop at 3rd contact with the naked eye. 

Right after totality, we turned around to watch the Moon’s shadow move away from us.  It appeared as a dark cone through the center of the sky.  I was subtle and not very contrasty.

  
     
 
 
 
     
 

A few minutes after totality, we watched the partially eclipsed Sun setting, hoping to see a multiple Green Flash.  Unlike the previous day, we did not see the phenomenon.  

A traffic jam developed on the dirt road within a couple of minutes of the end of the eclipse.  It took almost an hour for us to break down our equipment, and then we headed back to the Prairie Hotel.  We got back about 10 PM, and then it took almost an hour to get dinner served.  Meanwhile we fought off the moths in the upstairs dining room.  After dinner, a few of us went out to take some star trail photographs.

 
     
 
 
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  Copyright  2002 TravelQuest International and Robert D. Stephens.  All rights reserved.
Revised: October 25, 2005.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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