Eclipse information

Eclipses

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE DAY IN BOONVILLE, MISSOURI

Monday 8-21-2017 dawned clear, calm, warm and humid in Boonville, but looking toward the Northwest clouds were looming on the horizon and the radar showed heavy rains in Iowa and NW Missouri. What will we see?

My wife’s college roommate Verna Lee, phoned around 9:15 a.m. asking about our weather. She reported cloudy at Cameron.

By 10:00 a.m. we had 88 degrees and very high thin clouds coming in. By 11:00 a.m. it was 89 degrees and becoming mostly cloudy with very minor thin spots.

safe viewing

At 11:44, the start of the total eclipse, it was 88 degrees and we could barely see any sun through our special glasses. Our spirits were dampened as we were concerned we would not have a very good “once in a life time” experience.

I had spent many hours researching camera sittings and practicing and due to the clouds, everything was wrong and no camera focus, so no images.

By 12:00 noon we had clouds but we could see the sun trying to become visible and we were able to see it through our glasses and the special 14” x 20” card board screen I had prepared using the safety film from Thousand Oaks Optical.

It was 88 degrees and by 1:00 p.m. it was 84 degrees, partly cloudy with the sun 3/4 covered. When the Totality Eclipse came at 1:13 p.m. the temperature had gone down to 78 degrees and darkness descended Very QUICKLY.

totally

The first thing we observed were a couple humming birds coming in thinking it must be time for their evening feeding. The tree frogs starting their serenade and the locust made their noises too. Then our motion night light on the patio came on so I quickly shut it off and turned the inside house lights off and noticed how dark the house became.

The street lights had come on and it was very quiet. When looking toward the North horizon one could see the beauty of an evening sunset. If we were in an open area this sunset would have been 360 degrees. All too soon it was over but we all had a good view of a total solar eclipse. Thanks Be To God. It was awesome! It had cleared at 1:05, 6 minutes before the totality of the eclipse.

I got a good photo of each sequence except for the “diamond ring” which was about a 30 second duration. I had stepped into the house to get a drink of water. I did not realize it would be that quick and of short duration

Mike and I both got some very nice photos. I had my cameras set up on our patio and Mike found his position laying on his back in the grass and pointing his camera upward. My photographs made the front page of the Boonville Daily Newspaper and the Editor said it was the he had received.

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Early evening the day before, we drove over to New Franklin and showed Mike our Church and then on to the Katy Roundhouse Park RV grounds. It was full of tents and RV’s from all over. We visited with people from Overland Park KS. Fayetteville, ARK. and Waterloo. IA. and others, from all over the States.

I found a photographer, Bill Lambert, from Enid, OK. set up on space # 1 with his large Mead 1500 mm telescope W16 MP Sony DSLR attached. He was a very nice man to visit with and willing to share his information with the everyone. He was an accomplished ‘Star Gazer’ and had lots of experience celestial photography

The park had a large bonfire and fireworks for their many guests.

This was a once in a lifetime experience and I was very glad to be a part of it.

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Ol Bill