The Great American Eclipse, visible in totality from Texas to Maine, was an event not to be missed! We, like many others, put our bets on Texas weather being clearer in early April than anywhere else in the country. But…in a weird twist of fate, those in Ohio and Maine had clearer weather. From our vantage point in San Saba, Texas we had clear skies right up until a big cloud rolled through about 15 minutes prior to totality! But it wasn’t completely dense, so we were able to see and photograph all the major phases of totality, get some interesting “eclipse in the clouds” images, and have another fun-filled and amazing adventure!
The Great American Eclipse Chasing Adventure…
We traveled (in separate cars, with a mid-point stop on Friday night (5 April 2024) in Amarillo, TX) with Jan and Dave to San Angelo, Texas – the closest town to the path of totality with a Hilton or Marriott hotel with rooms available. It was also one we were familiar with after spending Christmas 2020 there with Stephanie and Victoria. We ended up with a fringe benefit – Stephanie was in San Angelo for another round of training at Goodfellow AFB and it was a week prior to her pinning-on Captain (4 years from her USAFA graduation already?!?!?). So, this trip included a pin-on ceremony (complete with French champagne) and the eclipse!
Paul had done all the research to find us a location as close as possible to the totality path mid-point with public access and facilities. That research resulted in a plan to view and image the eclipse from the Llano Municipal Airport. On Sunday, 7 April 2024, we’d planned a recon mission to check out that site. During breakfast before leaving the hotel Dave struck up a conversation with a few other eclipse viewers. Through those conversations we learned of a couple of potential alternative locations. So, our recon mission to the Llano Municipal Airport turned into a loop – San Angelo to Brady to Llano to San Saba. At our last stop, before closing the loop by heading back to San Angelo, we had lunch at San Saba and fell in love with the little town; its very welcoming people, quaint small town atmosphere, and the opportunity to sample pecans from the World’s Pecan Capital! ( https://visitsansabatexas.com/community/the-pecan-capital-of-the-world-exploring-the-pecan-industry-in-san-saba-texas/ ). We decided then and there, that if in the morning the weather forecast was the same for all three locations, we would go to San Saba.
Although the forecast had been dismal (full clouds and thunderstorms at the time of totality) in the week leading up to the event, on Sunday it started to shift. By Monday morning (8Apr2024), the forecast was calling for 0-1% cloud cover throughout the eclipse timeline for all three locations, so we packed up and headed to San Sabo. We found a great spot in the Mill Pond Park and at ~0900 began setting up virtually the same three rigs used during the partial eclipse in Los Alamos.
- Rig#1: Canon EOS Ra on Southern Cross (Askar FRA600, Rainbow Astro RST-135E), controlled with DSO CTRL-2 laptop running Solar Eclipse Timer and Camera Controller (SETnC)
- Rig#2: Canon EOS 5DSR with Tamron 150-600mm lens (at 600mm) on Skywatcher Star Adventurer Star Tracker controlled with DSO CTRL-1 laptop running Solar Eclipse Timer and Camera Controller (SETnC)
- Rig #3: Canon EOS 5DSR (PAB) with Canon 24-105mm lens (at 24mm) on tripod, to capture the eclipse, parade of planets, and Pons-Brook comet
We got all three rigs set up, with very little time to spare before the beginning of the eclipse (C1 at 1216CDT). Then we began the learning adventure with SETnC. I had on my checklist to change the laptop time zone to CDT – but had forgotten to do that during our initial set-up. When I first got SETnC started and attempted to start the eclipse imaging sequence, the SW told me that the eclipse was over six hours from starting. We regrouped and changed both laptops’ clocks to CDT. Okay, now the eclipse is only over 5 hours from starting. WTH?? It finally dawned on me (by looking at the SETnC counter (that was displaying time in UTC) that the computer clock also needed to be set to UTC. Once we did that (my changing the laptop time zone settings, while Dave held the umbrella over me to shade the screen), the program worked well (sort of)…
The Southern Cross’ mount had continued to experience problems since the Southern Hemisphere trip – it manifested itself during the eclipse in dismal tracking performance (suffice it to say, I never sat down because I was continuously adjusting the mount to re-center the sun, and in spite of all that effort, none of the pre-totality shots were anywhere near centered in the frame). Finally, near the end of the eclipse, as Dave and I were talking to another photographer, Dave said “Suzanne, something’s going on with the telescope, it’s not pointing toward the sun anymore.” The other photographer said, “Yes, it’s sagging” I thought to myself – “it doesn’t sag…” But it was sagging and the hand controller became unresponsive, as if the battery was drained (the same “performance” I had in January with the RST-300 when it ran out of DC power). The voltage read 12V, but the mount had no intention of responding to the hand controller and parking, even when I took the telescope off (yes, and laid it in the grass) to see if it would respond without any weight on it…
The other issue with SETnC…when I changed out the battery on the Canon EOS Ra just prior to totality (to make sure it didn’t run out of juice in the middle of totality) – it reverted back to its “factory settings” (that you have to put in on multiple screens before it finally takes): Auto ISO and .jpg image capture. Although I got some interesting cloud images that were not captured by the Canon EOS 5DSR, that was obediently staying at ISO 200 and it’s assigned exposure times, the .jpg images proved suboptimal during processing.
Most of the images you’ll see here and in the gallery came from Rig#2 (Canon 5DSR camera with Tamron 600mm lens on Skywatcher Star Tracker). I did not have to change out the Canon 5DSR battery (it was still showing full prior to totality – so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!), so the camera continued to follow it’s SETnC assigned exposure table. I executed the meridian flip prior to totality and the star tracker did an amazing job of tracking! Thank goodness!! Rig #1 (Canon EOS Ra on the Southern Cross) because of SETnC’s re-set to Auto ISO and exposure, ended up giving me some interesting cloud and eclipse images, but not much else. Rig #3, set up with the 24mm lens to capture the eclipse, parade of planets, and Pons-Brook comet, ended up with some interesting “big picture” cloud images. But only the eclipse and Venus visible, without the rest of the planet parade or the comet.
In spite of the clouds…
Even though the clouds moved in just before totality began, I was able to capture images of each of the major phases of totality: Baily’s Beads, Diamond Ring, Chromosphere and Prominences, and the Stellar (Solar) Corona. Of the 1,327 images I captured, I processed a few images from each of those totality phases (and a few partial phase images). Below is a sample image of each phase. In the Special Events: Solar Eclipse gallery page here: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/total-solar-eclipse-8-april-2024/ you can see all the images that I’ve processed, read some eclipse fun facts (including the science behind each of these totality phases), and get the details of the capture and processing.
Baily’s Beads…
Diamond Ring…
Chromosphere and prominences…
Solar Corona…
