I have been photographing solar eclipses for the last 47 years, and in the first two parts of the series I recounted my first four efforts at photographing them on land and sea around the American continent.
My next, and last, three solar eclipses were experienced in the last ten years, and were very different. First because I was not using digital cameras, rather than film. But more importantly, the internet was now everywhere. And its influence on what became “The Great American Eclipse” was unbelievable…
My fifth solar eclipse: August 21 2017
I’d chosen to go to Orin Junction, Wyoming, to see this eclipse. About 8 to 10 minutes further down the road was Glendo, Wyoming, and I’m sure glad I didn’t go there! Well, we did go there, but we’ll come back to that.
We got off to a good start, at the US border, where I was detained in handcuffs, and taken straight to a cell. There they were busy instructing me how to place my feet – a pattern I knew from an ex-con who’d told me that was the placement so that when you drop your drawers and bend over for a cavity search, you don’t fall over. It was not something I was looking forward to! At that moment, a female border agent dashed into the room, yelling, “You’ve got the wrong man!” Instantly the agent’s tone changed from their polite, but officious manner to a soft, “Well, we’d best get these handcuffs off you!”
I never did learn who they were looking for, though I think I know why. Still, we were delayed two hours, our car searched by both agents and dogs, but eventually sent on our way. It’s not an experience I’d want to repeat.
The “place to be” was Casper, Wyoming, as it was a major center, and on the centre-line. But hotel prices were ridiculous and we ended up in Sheridan, two hours' drive north of Casper, where I could reserve a room for only double the usual price. And that reservation was made almost two years before the event. For this was truly the age of the internet. The eclipse had been promoted as “The Great American Eclipse” and was, indeed, the first to cross the USA since 1979.
Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people across the US, were encouraged to go at the last minute. Without planning. They thought they’d just go and pick up a motel room, along the way. Much as we had done many years before.
Our room had a window, overlooking the pathway to the motel’s office. All evening long, we watched people leaving, often in tears. They’d come at the suggestion of the internet, without reservations, and had gone, motel to motel, desperately looking for a room.
The morning of the eclipse we headed south at 5.30 am, and when we got to Casper my wife said she’d like a cup of tea. I pulled into a McDonald’s which was busier than any restaurant I’d ever seen. It took us well over 90 minutes to get a single cup of tea. As we drove, every park in Casper was filled with tripods and telescopes. Every wide spot on the Interstate 25, was chock full of people and telescopes.
I’d selected Orin Junction as it was almost perfectly on the center-line, with prospects of good seeing yet small enough (a population of just under 50 at the time) to not encourage people to go there. But I missed the turnoff and ended up in Glendo, just down the road. They’d been silly enough to put a notice on the internet saying they were on the center-line and were welcoming eclipse chasers. This little town of 209 people received some 50,000 visitors! We used their overpass to turn around, but access to the town itself was blocked by police cars with flashing lights. That town was full!
We got back to Orin Junction to find it consisted of a single, Sinclair gas station, and parked cars as far as the eye could see. Parking looked to be impossible! Luckily, someone pulled out, presumably heading for a better position, so I pulled in. We set up our tripod and chairs in the ditch, some 25 feet (8 meters) away, and had a wonderful view!
By that time, I was using Leica’s 400mm f/6.8, “trombone focus” lens for my wildlife shots, and trying to find the sun with a filter on is difficult. The easy, low-cost solution is a DIY Pinhole Projection Finder. Dimensions are not critical and mostly determined by how your lens is made. You can use cardboard, wood, stiff boxboard or whatever you’ve got, I used acrylic plastic as I had some to spare. I used bits of cylindrical rod (wooden doweling would work) for my base as it will adapt to any diameter lens. The front has a black card with a tiny (1mm or so) hole. The rear panel has a white or cream card. On eclipse day, mount your finder on your lens with a rubber band, gaffers or masking tape, or what-have-you. I used a large hose clamp with a small piece of fabric underneath to prevent scratching.
On eclipse day, with your filter on, find the sun and make a small X where the beam of light from the hole in the front panel hits the rear panel. That’s it. As the sun moves during the eclipse, it’s bog-simple to loosen your tripod head and reset it so the spot of light is still on the X. When most eclipses last only a minute or three, this speed and convenience is essential. It works remarkably well and is completely safe. I suggest you make on early, and test it before the eclipse.
This was my first eclipse using a digital camera and I quickly discovered that unlike film, the shiny surface of my sensor created repeating reflections with the glass solar filter. The cure was to simply tilt the filter on the lens (see photo above) for a quick fix.
Some 20,000 people had gone to the Baja for the 1991 Eclipse. Some 100,000+ people went to the area around Casper, Wyoming. And the difference was the internet.
My sixth solar eclipse: October 14 2023
The best laid plans.... I’d booked a motel in Winnemucca, Nevada, a small town of 8000 souls, which was right on the centerline of the Annular eclipse. I’ve still not been to Winnemucca, as just before I was to leave, my wife was thrown from a horse and spent the next 20 days in the hospital.
My trip was instantly cancelled, but I proved you can still get some fascinating shots, even if you’re 1160km (720 miles) off the centre-line. Of course, from my backyard it was only a partial eclipse, and the clouds were so thick that the shot above was taken without a solar filter!
My seventh solar eclipse: April 8 2024
The peak duration for this eclipse was in Texas, but we opted for Milan, Ohio, so we could pick up a favorite cousin in Michigan and, at 90 years of age, have her see her first eclipse. Totality was still almost three minutes. As per the new standard, we booked well over a year ahead, and discovered that while the town was packed, our hotel was on the outskirts, and had a huge, empty field adjacent to the property. So, we watched the eclipse from there, with a few family members and a small number of other hotel guests. Some thin, high clouds did not hinder the view. Very civilized.
Be sure to have a proper filter on your lens at all times – other than during totality. Remember, the pentaprisms in SLRs make a distinctive “tink” when they get too hot and crack, because someone didn’t use a filter and aimed their camera at the sun! It is also easy to burn your sensor in a mirrorless camera if aimed at the sun, without a filter in place. And never look at the sun through binoculars (unless they are specialist solar binoculars), or a camera with a telephoto lens without a filter attached. Both capture far more light than your eye, and it is super easy to permanently damage your eye. Most of all, don’t get so involved with your camera that you forget to look up! It’s a sight you’ll never forget!
The next North American total solar eclipse will be August 22 2044 with the eclipse underway at sunrise in Greenland. An unusually wide (281 miles/453 km) path of totality will then sweep across the Arctic, traverse parts of BC and nearly all of Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan, before winding up in Montana and the Dakotas. Totality peaks at two minutes and four seconds. I’m pushing 80 now, so I’m not sure I’ll see that one. But, I hope you do.
