RE: Eclipse pictures.
August 1, 2017 at 3:02 pm
(This post was last modified: August 1, 2017 at 3:03 pm by vorlon13.)
I saw the February 79 eclipse from Montana !! Think about that, Montana, February, and I'm just a factory grunt at the time spending a heap of money (for me) on an extreme long shot at seeing a total solar eclipse.
My 'ace in the hole' was absolute faith in the eclipse tour organizers ability to get the 400+ eclipse fanatics somewhere, anywhere there was a break in the clouds sufficient for us to see it. LOL, I had to scour the internet to remind myself of the '79 ground track. I literally had no recollection of it as it wasn't important to me since it was somebody else's problem to get me on it.
![[Image: IMG413.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=web.williams.edu%2FAstronomy%2Feclipse%2Feclipse1979%2FIMG413.jpg)
And I am aghast how far from the center line we observed it! I had no idea at the time we weren't within 10 miles of the center line, LOL!
The reason for that was the organizers knew when and where the eclipse was going to be within hundreds of miles of the lodge we were staying at, and, I don't recall how they did it, but they had access to weather satellite images and could track breaks in the clouds and predict where they would be relative to the ground and where the eclipse was. It all worked out, we were awakened REALLY early the day of and crammed on to a 10 or 12 bus eclipse caravan. IIRC, we made one change after we started as to where we would observe from (went further east) but we had plenty of time at the site. We were there and set up before first contact. And note, there were 400+ of us and the buses were CRAMMED with gear. We also were fed on the way there, boxed breakfast included a piece of fruit, donut or roll and some really warm cartons of milk or juice. As soon as the total phase of the eclipse was over, the organizers sent a car load of exposed film back to the lodge to be developed and turned into slides so we could view them at the banquet that night !!
The whole trip was VERY well planned by some very skilled and highly motivated people and it was a big success. The general public, feeling there was little to no chance of seeing the eclipse from Montana stayed away in droves, LOL. Traffic was light, and we had no delays for traffic anywhere.
Also, we were lucky for the weather too, it was not that cold, and the excitement of it all kept us warm enough. It was really a blast, I HIGHLY recommend for anyone with even a slight chance of making it to the total eclipse area to do so.
My 'ace in the hole' was absolute faith in the eclipse tour organizers ability to get the 400+ eclipse fanatics somewhere, anywhere there was a break in the clouds sufficient for us to see it. LOL, I had to scour the internet to remind myself of the '79 ground track. I literally had no recollection of it as it wasn't important to me since it was somebody else's problem to get me on it.
And I am aghast how far from the center line we observed it! I had no idea at the time we weren't within 10 miles of the center line, LOL!
The reason for that was the organizers knew when and where the eclipse was going to be within hundreds of miles of the lodge we were staying at, and, I don't recall how they did it, but they had access to weather satellite images and could track breaks in the clouds and predict where they would be relative to the ground and where the eclipse was. It all worked out, we were awakened REALLY early the day of and crammed on to a 10 or 12 bus eclipse caravan. IIRC, we made one change after we started as to where we would observe from (went further east) but we had plenty of time at the site. We were there and set up before first contact. And note, there were 400+ of us and the buses were CRAMMED with gear. We also were fed on the way there, boxed breakfast included a piece of fruit, donut or roll and some really warm cartons of milk or juice. As soon as the total phase of the eclipse was over, the organizers sent a car load of exposed film back to the lodge to be developed and turned into slides so we could view them at the banquet that night !!
The whole trip was VERY well planned by some very skilled and highly motivated people and it was a big success. The general public, feeling there was little to no chance of seeing the eclipse from Montana stayed away in droves, LOL. Traffic was light, and we had no delays for traffic anywhere.
Also, we were lucky for the weather too, it was not that cold, and the excitement of it all kept us warm enough. It was really a blast, I HIGHLY recommend for anyone with even a slight chance of making it to the total eclipse area to do so.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
![[Image: Ecl79Caravan.gif]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=pedasfamily.com%2FEcl79Caravan.gif)
