ECLIPSE 2017 - Alright boys & girls, time to gear up!

tiger roach

tiger roach

Urban Bovine Knievel
The big eclipse is two weeks from today! I fly out to the great northwest a week from Thursday.

For various reasons, I haven't been anticipating this trip the way I usually do. So tonight I finally flogged myself into getting the camera and observing gear out to start deciding what goes.

I'm traveling alone, so I need to be able to carry it all. No telescope, and just 2-3 well-chosen lenses.

For observing the eclipse, my trusty 50mm stabilized binocs with solar filters, that part is easy.

For photos - I was going to leave the big lens and tripod at home and just do wide-angle shots, but screw that. I can take the 400mm in my backpack. For non-eclipse work, well that's the hard part. Probably the ultra-wide zoom and for a moderate tele, either the fast 135 or the 70-200 zoom.

So after playing with my gear for a bit, now I'm psyched for the trip! Mission accomplished. :thu:

Who else is going to shoot it? What will you use? Hmmmm?
 
I need to get some glasses.

We are right on the edge of the total eclipse zone. I might drive a bit west or south to get maximum totality if it isn't cloudy.

My company gave us the day off specifically because of the eclipse. How cool is that? :cool:
 
Unfortunately I'll be stuck at work. But I am bringing my solar scope in to try and do some observing if the weather holds. I've got a B&L 60mm zoom spotting scope mounted on a tripod, plus a Thousand Oaks glass filter for the front. There was a guy I knew perhaps 20 yrs ago who had an H-Alpha rig. His scope was a 90mm Meade APO on an equatorial mount. He used to set it up whenever he was at the clubhouse.
 
parrotheada1a said:
Unfortunately I'll be stuck at work. But I am bringing my solar scope in to try and do some observing if the weather holds. I've got a B&L 60mm zoom spotting scope mounted on a tripod, plus a Thousand Oaks glass filter for the front. There was a guy I knew perhaps 20 yrs ago who had an H-Alpha rig. His scope was a 90mm Meade APO on an equatorial mount. He used to set it up whenever he was at the clubhouse.
Click to expand...

Love those H-Alpha solar scopes...I've only had a peek or two through one. They produce some stunning photos.
 
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court - That book ruined all eclipses for me.

What are the odds that someone going back in time and just as they are about to be executed, he knows that on this exact moment, on this exact date, in this exact spot an eclipse would happen - calls it out and everyone thinks he's a very series bad ass magician that at a moments notice can bring doom to the earth. Everyone in that book is lost sheep following aimlessly out of fear.

So - every time I think of a real life eclipse I think of how Mark Twain jumped the shark literally the first chapter of that book and all the people reading just followed and fell for it like man bunned hipsters at an Apple store, or the same aimless sheep in the fictional story.
 
I’m gonna wait till everybody is looking up and then poop on my neighbor’s doorstep.
 
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We are supposed to get a 85% eclipse here. I don't have any fancy stuff, but I'm looking forward to it.
 
Just remember kids... no peeking unless you have the right filter in front of your eyeballs. Enjoy the spectacle safely!
 
I'll be traveling but we could not get a dog friendly hotel in the totality zone even though I booked back in Oct 2016. So I need to travel at least 30 miles north. Right now it seems unclear if we will be successful. I'm tempted to bring my bike because in 2 hours I would have no problems getting that far north but we won't have the room. Going to get up early and hope the predictions are not as bad as they say, at least the way I'm going
 
I saw a crispy quarter-moon on the way in this morning, and got slammed with the first wave of pre-eclipse nervousness. :zoinks:

I'll never get caught up at work so I can go!
It'll rain! Or be cloudy!
I'll miss my flight!
The bus will break down, get hijacked and get mired in traffic on the way to the eclipse site!

panic0
 
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Ok, finally I'm all geared up & ready go. Camera programmed & tested. Everything packed that can be packed.

All the geek gear fits nicely in my photo backpack/carry-on. Including the binoculars, which is nice - on previous trips the bins had to go in the checked bag, which is risky to say the least.

Less than 24 hours now until liftoff. panic0
 
Took the kids to a play date a few days ago. A gaggle of sanctimonious mommies were one-upping each other over who had arranged the best camping trip to watch the eclipse in Wyoming or Nebraska.

Personally I hope Trump was the big sign of impending apocalypse and we’re all dead by the end of the day.
 
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