Junior Ranger Eclipse Explorer!

Day 312: Several factors led up to a situation in which Mount Rainier National Park only received a handful (literally five or six) Junior Ranger Eclipse Explorer badges and books. I think it was the "sad puppy-dog" face I wore for Marc Blackburn, but whatever the reason, I shall be eternally grateful that he let me have one of them. I hope my eclipse photo sequence fills the requirements for earning it.

I watched the eclipse almost from beginning to end through my 4.5" Orion Star-Blast telescope, employing a solar filter designed expressly for viewing sunspots. I noticed a little grouping of them near the limb of the sun as the Moon's shadow darkened the solar disk, although I did not see any prominences. The temperature dropped substantially and the crows kept cawing throughout the event, but the cats were unfazed, and my two neighbours never even came outside.

Totality 2-26-1979

Day 132: In case any of my readers have missed the announcement, a total eclipse of the sun will be visible in a 60-mile wide ribbon which will travel across the country roughly from Lincoln City, OR, to South Carolina on August 21, 2017. The last time a total eclipse was visible in the continental US was on February 26, 1979. I had the great good fortune to be able to view it from the Stonehenge replica at Maryhill, WA. That was when I captured this image using a Mamiya-Sekor 1000 DTL and Kodachrome film (ASA unknown). The slides have deteriorated over the last 38 years, but despite imperfections and grain, still show the corona and multiple prominences.

Although we noticed the "eclipse wind" and sudden drop in air temperature, my husband and I didn't witness any of the other phenomena which sometimes occur during totality, but perhaps that was because we didn't know to look for them. Viewers have reported shimmering bands of darkness on light-coloured ground, other-worldly super-saturation of colours and intense, crisply-edged shadows, but these only occur over a span of minutes, and if your attention is focused on the sky, you may miss them.

Partiality will be visible to a wider audience in a 140-mile wide band, but weather and circumstance permitting, I hope to be in the path of total darkness in August, camera and telescope on hand. It will be the last chance I have to see a total eclipse in my lifetime.