Total Eclipse in Southern Indiana

[kt4hx]

Mary and I, along with our 7-year old grandson Theo, traveled back to our home state of Indiana on Sunday after watching the forecasts in detail. We finally decided our chances were good and that turned out to be exactly the right call. We are staying with Mary's sister (Kaye) in Clarksville and on Monday morning all four of us drove up to the farm outside of Salem which is owned by Mary and Kaye's brother (Rick) and his wife (Marcella). So our goal was to spend this eclipse session with family and show them the true beauty of the event. Using the timeanddate.com interactive map, I plotted the location of their farm and it showed they were to have about 2 minutes and 24 seconds of totality. To make sure everyone was safe, I held them to just two minutes of viewing without filtration.

For the trip I took my ES Twilight-II alt-az mount and my ES AR127 and ED80 refractors. I of course have white light filters for those. We also had a box with 25 pairs of Celestron eclipse glasses and my Pentax 10x50 binoculars. After setting up and aligning the scopes we waited for the eclipse to begin, but in the meantime noticed the 3628 and 3633 sunspots. We had a total of eight of us together on Rick's back porch, sharing the views through our glasses and the telescopes. Once totality took hold, we all were mesmerized with the unfiltered naked eye, telescopic and binocular views of the event. There was a magnificent solar flare that was easily seen naked eye during totality. Of course the change in light was nothing short of amazing as was the noticeable drop in temperature and pickup of a cool wind. The corona was truly stunning and our family was quite wowed by the entire experience.

We had minimal clouds, which were of the high thin variety, having no real impact. The eerie look of our environment as totality approached and reached was commented on by everyone. Rick's outdoor security lights came on as well, which added to the visual intrigue. Mary had bought a couple of small disco-type balls which were hung up and gave some interesting reflections of the phases of the eclipse on the surrounding porch and house. Theo, Mary and I also went around to the driveway during the partial leading up to totality, and with glasses on could view the partial eclipse reflecting off the windshield of our car. That was a really curious visual treat.

After the eclipse finished, I broke down my setup, and we packed all our stuff into the car and headed back to Kaye's apartment. We encountered some traffic backup, but it wasn't so bad since we were not trying to return to Virginia. We plan to return home on Wednesday morning in relative peace and quiet on the road. This will be a nice contrast to 2017, when we got caught in the post eclipse road trip mess! That was an awful ordeal we did not wish to repeat, thus our plan to spend three nights at Kaye's and let the masses evacuate the area before we head home.

So all in all this was an outstanding experience for everyone involved. The joy of sharing it with loved ones made it all the more special for us as well. The next total in the US will not be until 2045. Whether we will live long enough to experience that one is uncertain. The odds are not in our favor, but if we are still alive and have the ability to get to its path, we will do so! Witnessing a total eclipse is like no other experience in this hobby. It truly is not to be missed if at all possible!

[Bigzmey]

Great report Alan and congrats on beating the odds! Sharing with family makes it even more special. Our target location was Dallas which did not turn great. We decided to cancel the trip and enjoyed the partial eclipse at home. Our friend came to view it with us. It turned out to be a pleasant morning in it's own right.

[Lady Fraktor]

That sounds like a very good time with family and an exceptional event.

[kt4hx]

Great report Alan and congrats on beating the odds! Sharing with family makes it even more special. Our target location was Dallas which did not turn great. We decided to cancel the trip and enjoyed the partial eclipse at home. Our friend came to view it with us. It turned out to be a pleasant morning in it's own right.

Thank you Andrey. We did beat the odds and are thankful for that indeed! We really didn't want to drive over 600 miles and get clouded out, and that is why we didn't make our decision until Saturday evening. In anticipation we had already packed up some stuff just in case, so if we made the decision to go, we wouldn't have to rush at the last minute. Theo spent the night and had his stuff with him, so we could roll on out Sunday morning. He is missing school in Virginia, but we felt the experience would be very memorable and something he could share with his friends.

Sorry your trip didn't work out for you. But having a backup plan is helpful and you all still enjoyed a great show!

That sounds like a very good time with family and an exceptional event.

Thank you Gabrielle. It was a terrific time indeed! Tuesday we plan to take Theo back up to Salem (our home town) and show him around a bit, such as where we grew up, the schools we went to, etc. Thought he might find that interesting. We also have a great bakery in town with amazing doughnuts, and that is something he truly likes!

[kt4hx]

I forgot to mention that bright Venus was very prominent during totality, about 15° WSW of the sun. Interestingly my brother-in-law told me he thought the "star" he was seeing had changed location. I told him that it had not, and it was only an illusory thing as the light and its intensity changed. In fact, when I've been at our dark site, I have looked naked eye at a bright planet and for a moment it almost seems to move slightly.

I wish to correct something I said in my eclipse report. That would be the statement that we saw a solar flare during totality. However, as I found out later, that was not the case. What we saw was a prominence, as no true flares were present during totality. This was confirmed by Ryan French, an astrophysicist with the National Solar Observatory in an article I read. He said many reported (incorrectly, including myself) that they saw a very noticeable solar flare. However there were no active flares during totality. He also stated that despite being near its high in the 11 year cycle, solar activity quieted down before the eclipse, and thus the reduced number of sunspots that were present during totality. But that activity should ramp up again shortly.

[Ylem]

Nice report Alan, friends and family really add to events.

[kt4hx]

Nice report Alan, friends and family really add to events.

Thanks Jeff. It was a great time indeed!