The 2017 total eclipse that cut a path across the US was the first time I ever experienced a total eclipse. I’ve read about them, gone to partial and annular eclipses, seen total lunar eclipses, but this was a first for me. No matter how much I prepared myself for what was going to happen nothing could have prepared me for the feeling in the actual moment. The feeling of something being amiss as the moon starts to pass in front of the sun and alter the light almost imperceptibly, the change in the wind and the dropping in temperature (made even more acute by being at around 7,000 ft in altitude on the upraised vast plateau that was a former seafloor, making the air thinner and exceptionally low humidity), and the absence of people (normal for this part of Wyoming) added to the ethereality of the moment. I quickly chose the three locations of my cameras and set them recording so I could stand and observe and feel the changes in the environment.
The moment of totality was so very beautiful, it doesn’t matter if I’ve seen images and video of it before, its one of those things that is so hard to capture or convey. The way the light changes, seeing the halo of ionosphere and corona of the sun protruding around the edges of the moon, the odd pinkness to the threads of corona, it felt almost like sunset or sunrise, but not quite, the angle of the light was all wrong, and the sunset/sunrise was equal on all horizons. The moment the sun popped a corner past the moon at the end of totality, it was like someone shot up the most insanely bright and actinic colored flare ever produced. The landscape was just lit up in an oddly blue-pink light that made it feel like I was standing on another planet (the oddity of the landscape in that part of Wyoming and the absence of any other human besides my husband added to the effect), as though we were transported momentarily to some fantastical science fiction setting.
We are already planning our future trips to other total solar eclipses.
We started planning for this trip many months in advance, creating a collaborative map of possible locations for the best viewing, something beautiful to have in the foreground (difficult because of the high angle of the sun during totality), and hopefully a lack of people so we could have unobstructed views and be able to experience the moment without distractions. We settled on a stretch of land within the band of totality between Riverton and Casper, Wyoming. The question was whether or not there would be too much cloud coverage and then we would have to move quickly to wherever it would be clear. Luckily it was clear enough along the eastern portion of the line of totality we’d chosen as our best bet.
This video is a a time-lapse from three different cameras at three different focal lengths I set up around our viewing spot off of Poison Spider Road between Riverton and Casper, Wyoming. The first is several hundred stills at 24mm focal length (about 38mm on a full frame) on a Canon T3i, the second is video shot at 16mm focal length on a Canon 5D MkII, and the last is from a GoPro Hero4 Silver (about 14mm focal length). I wasn’t sure if any one of them would work or fail, but I wanted to have a setup that allowed me to start it well before the beginning of totality and then walk away and enjoy the totality without having to worry about it, you can see Joaquin moving about and triggering his camera to take photos just as totality begins.
Video of 2017 Total Solar Eclpise in Wyoming
Timothy Dahlum 