Astrocon Conference and Eclipse pixs from Casper Wyoming

My Wife and I attended Astrocon in Casper the week before the eclipse. We had our booth set up and met lots of eclipse chasers who came out to hear talks by famous amateurs and professionals during the conference, and check out the latest amateur equipment. The highlight of the conference was the talk by Fred "Mr Eclipse" Espenak. He certainly got the crowd fired up and looking forward to the next morning.

Astrocon officials made available to us a spot at Casper College, up on a hill with sweeping views of the distant mountains - an ideal spot for hungry eclipse eyes. Fred Espenak set up nearby with a battery of 18 telescopes and cameras in order to capture every phase of this fleeting event. I brought one setup for me and one for my wife, a scope with camera and a smaller 90mm refractor mounted on top for visual viewing.

The eclipse started nicely with crystal clear skies, but soon a series of thin clouds appeared on the horizon. And of course they drifted right over our site at totality, but thin enough to let us have a decent view of the corona. This is my 8th eclipse and every eclipse is different. The last 60 seconds the light level had an eerie sharpness, like an approaching thunderstorm. It was like dense twilight but without the colors of sunset. It was almost like a black&white movie.

In the last few seconds the light level dropped several magnitudes and the corona appeared as a pearly white glow. The entire eclipse was surrounded by faint reddish light from both the high level clouds and the smoke from forest fires several hundred miles to the west. The people around us were at first hushed and then burst out in applause and cheers.

What was supposed to be 2 1/2 minutes of eclipse was over in a flash - seemed like 30 seconds to me. Suddenly Baily's beads and the second Diamond ring appeared and last moment frantic images taken before it was all over. Within a few minutes a heavy cloud passed overhead and hid the sun in a thick haze for the following partials.

Emotions of sad, happy, wonder, and awe were followed by thoughts of the next eclipse.


Diamond Ring has reddish color from thin clouds
https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...6.jpg&caption=

Mini-Diamond Ring Just before 2nd contact
https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...5.jpg&caption=

Mid eclipse corona with subtle colors from the clouds
https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...3.jpg&caption=

Closeup of the prominences
https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...4.jpg&caption=

Razzy

Razzmatazz:

My Wife and I attended Astrocon in Casper the week before the eclipse. We had
our booth set up and met lots of eclipse chasers who came out to hear talks
by famous amateurs and professionals during the conference, and check out the
latest amateur equipment. The highlight of the conference was the talk by
Fred "Mr Eclipse" Espenak. He certainly got the crowd fired up and looking
forward to the next morning.

Astrocon officials made available to us a spot at Casper College, up on a
hill with sweeping views of the distant mountains - an ideal spot for hungry
eclipse eyes. Fred Espenak set up nearby with a battery of 18 telescopes and
cameras in order to capture every phase of this fleeting event. I brought one
setup for me and one for my wife, a scope with camera and a smaller 90mm
refractor mounted on top for visual viewing.

The eclipse started nicely with crystal clear skies, but soon a series of
thin clouds appeared on the horizon. And of course they drifted right over
our site at totality, but thin enough to let us have a decent view of the
corona. This is my 8th eclipse and every eclipse is different. The last 60
seconds the light level had an eerie sharpness, like an approaching
thunderstorm. It was like dense twilight but without the colors of sunset. It
was almost like a black&white movie.

In the last few seconds the light level dropped several magnitudes and the
corona appeared as a pearly white glow. The entire eclipse was surrounded by
faint reddish light from both the high level clouds and the smoke from forest
fires several hundred miles to the west. The people around us were at first
hushed and then burst out in applause and cheers.

What was supposed to be 2 1/2 minutes of eclipse was over in a flash - seemed
like 30 seconds to me. Suddenly Baily's beads and the second Diamond ring
appeared and last moment frantic images taken before it was all over. Within
a few minutes a heavy cloud passed overhead and hid the sun in a thick haze
for the following partials.

Emotions of sad, happy, wonder, and awe were followed by thoughts of the next
eclipse.


Diamond Ring has reddish color from thin clouds

https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...orums/835000-8
35999/835626.jpg&caption=

Mini-Diamond Ring Just before 2nd contact

https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...orums/835000-8
35999/835625.jpg&caption=

Mid eclipse corona with subtle colors from the clouds

https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...orums/835000-8
35999/835623.jpg&caption=

Closeup of the prominences
https://www.astromart.com/common/ima...4.jpg&caption=

Razzy

Nice description, nice pics. My observing partner, Wing Cmdr Gerry
Doyle, RAF, got some decent totality pics with a Canon 7D Mark II and a
Canon telephoto zoom @ 640mm EFL https://adobe.ly/2wlhLS2.

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