Eclipse

After fueling up and doing our laundry, we headed for the Star View Vineyard. We had made reservations there last November for Sunday night, 20 August. We arrived to find very little level ground. We managed to get a suitable spot with the help of blocks. We were surprised that there was only one other RV there, a pop-up. We had expected more. I had had a piece of heavy filter material drop-shipped to me at the Vineyard. I spent some time that night cutting a filter to fit on my camera. I had also completely charged my battery and bought a new 8Gb card to be used only for the eclipse.

Next morning dawned clear. So far so good. There were a couple of people setting up telescopes on motor-driven mounts with cameras attached behind the pop-up. They had thousands of dollars worth of sophisticated equipment, but one of them had to borrow my Leatherman to make an adjustment. They were out working a couple of hours before the event, which was to start about noon.

The vineyard soon began to fill up with people come to enjoy the event. This contrasts with the attitude of earlier days. There was a total eclipse when Jean was living in Mexico. She and the children got all prepared with their viewing boxes, etc. The local housemaid was frightened and warned them that it was bad luck to be outside during an eclipse. Not all native attitudes were negative. One old story says that there is an old woman weaving a basket. When the basket is completed, the world will come to an end. But periodically a dog, named “Eclipse,” comes along and tears the basket up; so the old woman has to start all over again.

We were parked in the hot sun, so we ran the generator and the air conditioner all day. Meanwhile we took our chairs into the shade of some pine trees, where we were entertained by a couple keeping up with a two-year-old girl. About ten of twelve, I set up in the sun and started  shooting.  Jean came out and watched through solar glasses.

The event takes two-and-a-half hours to complete, so I got comfortable.

About that time, scattered clouds moved in. Also, as the disk of the sun got smaller, the camera began having trouble finding focus.

 During the moments of totality, I needed to take off the filter (and put it on again as the moon moved on). I continued shooting (though most folks left after totality) which allowed me to record the entire event.

At the climactic moment, I got some interesting effects.

As well as more normal pictures.

After resting from our efforts (and mainly the heat) we went in the air-conditioned tasting room and had sandwiches (with wine, of course) . Then we wrapped everything up, bid our hosts fond adieu, and drove back to the Devil’s Backbone. By that time the traffic had died down and it was an easy 34 miles. This event was our one scheduled stop. Tomorrow we make a side trip into Missouri to visit some of Jean’s relatives and then it is back to the Great River Road.