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We were forecast to be cloudy, but the clouds held off and we did get a good look at the eclipse, after all. This far north, we only got 77% coverage, but still very worthwhile to setup the telescope (a vintage Televue Genesis SDF refractor) with a solar filter and get a few pics simply by holding the camera over the telescope eyepiece.


Note the correct and safe solar filter (the silver ring is the cell that holds the filter) that fits over the front lens at the top of the telescope. This filter is designed specifically for this exact model of telescope. I use it mostly for checking sunspot activity, but it also makes a very good eclipse filter. (NEVER use a solar filter that fits over the eyepiece as you sometimes find on old vintage telescopes. Not safe to use.)


Here's the sun at about the half hour point for us.


And here we have max coverage for us at 77%.


Hope everyone got a chance to enjoy the eclipse, too.

Congratulations, NCG. That's a beautiful setup and your "range" report is, as always, an easy read. You have not only mastered shooting firearms, but you shoot a great camera, too! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Maybe we will see that scope on a rifle with some shredded 2500 yd targets.

Great photos. Thanks.

That's a great telescope NCG. Great photos too.

I saw it at work. Many young people there who hadn't seen one before. They were outside, sharing the glasses they had and having a nice moment. I enjoyed watching their interaction more than the eclipse.

Nice pictures. We were too far out of the path to get much of the effects, other than a whole day of silliness on the radio. Comedy skits every ten minutes, warnings about fake eclipse glasses, and the rest. If we lived in the path, would have loved to have seen it. Thanks for sharing your pics.

Miss T and I both worked in our work shops most of the day...

My time spent during the eclipse was quite similar to yours, DD. My next-door neighbor had about a dozen people at her "eclipse parking lot party" in front of our apartment building. Her brother with his wife and kids came from northeastern KS, where it was cloudy, to try to view the eclipse here. Fortunately for all, we did have that brief window of a clear, mostly sunny sky during "totality." My neighbor also had her apartment neighbor join in, plus she had one friend who came from Los Angeles just for the afternoon's event! Wow, that would have been an even longer trip if we had had cloud cover!

What was most fun for me was watching my neighbor's 15-year old son's reaction. After "night passed" and it became daylight again, I looked over at him for a couple of moments. I saw this wide grin on his face, and at the same time also saw him breathe out a huge sigh of contentment. You're right on, Dave. The people-watching was really much more enjoyable then the dance the sun and moon did! 'Twas a good time for these folk, and I was glad to see/share in their enjoyment.

daytime dave wrote:I saw it at work. Many young people there who hadn't seen one before. They were outside, sharing the glasses they had and having a nice moment. I enjoyed watching their interaction more than the eclipse.

I've never missed an eclipse that occurred where I was living at the time, so pretty much another solar eclipse for me. When I lived in the city, though, I often setup this and other solar telescopes for people to view the sun, both during eclipses and under ordinary circumstances. Your right, it's the reaction of the people that I found most interesting.

We watched from the Blue Ridge Parkway just north of the NC/VA border. It was a >95% coverage with clear skies, but it still only darkened about as much as a cloud going by the sun. It's amazing how much energy and light that even 5% of the sun can put out. What was really interesting was the sunlight coming thru the forest canopy - every little sunlight spot that came thru the tree foliage onto the ground was in the shape of a crescent as the moon came across the sun - very cool to see thousands of little crescents everywhere on the forest floor.

I watched the eclipse from the top of Mt. Si. When we got to the top there was more than 200 people. On a typical Monday there might have only been two or three other people. Even on weekends it wouldn't have been more than a couple dozen. It looked odd to see that many rock monkeys wearing eclipse glasses.