To celebrate the total solar eclipse of 2017, the astronomy club I belong to (West Kentucky Amateur Astronomers) planned a three day festival at the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) Golden Pond Visitor Center & Planetarium. The festival started on Saturday 19 August and ended on the day of the eclipse, Monday 21 August.
Saturday was hot and humid but mostly clear. I opened up the observatory at the LBL Visitor Center about 10am and showed the public four groups of sunspots through the 16″ Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with mylar filter. There were also two small prominences visible through the Coronado Hydrogen-alpha Solar telescope. I estimate about 75-100 people looked through the scopes during the course of the day. Even more people (250-300) turned out for the evening program when we were able to show people Jupiter and Saturn as well as a few deep sky delights.
The next day, Sunday, was again mostly clear, hot, and humid. I operated the observatory scopes again and showed the same four groups of sunspots but two different prominences. This time there was a steady stream of people through the observatory all day and I estimated a total of about 700-800 visitors.
4:00am Eclipse Day. Not knowing what to expect as far as clouds, traffic, or crowd size, my wife, Melissa, and I got up at 4am and checked the weather forecast. 30% cloud cover was predicted for LBL. The previous day the prediction had been 17-23% but had gone up to 50% by the time we went to bed. We debated about chasing the eclipse to a better location but any place we could reach at that point had about the same forecast. So, we stayed with LBL and hoped for the best.
We did not run into any unusual traffic on the way and there were only light clouds along the eastern horizon. When we got to the observatory we met other club members who said that they had not seen any unusual traffic either. So, once again, I opened up the observatory to the public for solar viewing and people began to gather. We had the same four sunspot groups as before plus one new group and a small prominence.
11:55am First contact. The Moon’s silhouette first touched the edge (limb) of the Sun and began slowly working its way across. We watched as it covered the sunspots one by one. It began to darken noticeably as more people arrived. We heard many comments from people expressing their appreciation for the club taking the time to share the event with them. To the astonishment of some of the people in line waiting to look through the scopes, I projected a crescent Sun image onto the floor of the observatory through a tiny opening between my fingers (making a pinhole projector) and then directed them to go outside and look at the shadows of tree leaves on the ground where lots of crescent Suns were projected.
As the Sun was slowly covered by the Moon, its light began to take on a more golden glow.
1:08pm We closed the observatory to the public to allow everyone, including WKAA members, to enjoy the eclipse. The sunlight got even more dim and took on an eerie orangish color. I used my binoculars, which I had covered with filters, to monitor the eclipse progress.
1:23pm The sky became very dark to the west-north-west due to the approaching shadow of the Moon. I saw no shadow bands on the sheets we had laid out for that purpose. The temperature was dropping but there was no noticeable breeze. Shadows were darker and more sharp-edged.
1:24pm Second contact. The “Diamond Ring” (the last bright spot of sunlight visible just before the Moon hides the Sun completely) suddenly appeared, quite bright, followed a bit later by Baily’s Beads (points of sunlight passing through gaps in the rough terrain along the Moon’s limb). Spontaneous applause and cheering erupted from all the people around me. This was the beginning of totality so I pulled the filters off my binoculars and looked. There was a pink prominence along the lower right edge and another dimmer one above it on the right edge. I noticed the bright star Regulus off to the left and when I looked with just my eyes I found the bright planet Venus some distance to the right and Jupiter even farther off to the left.
The corona was beautiful and put on a spectacular show of its own. It was especially vivid through the binoculars as I scanned its shape and details. The curving shapes of the coronal “rays” were very apparent, much wider at the base and coming to curving points farther out. The whole eclipse was quite beautiful, looking like a hole in the sky. In fact the inky blackness of the Moon’s silhouette surrounded by the corona looked very much like what I would imagine a black hole to look like.
Our surroundings were dark but not as dark as I though they would be. There was still a strange glow over the landscape from the corona and the temperature was now comfortably cool. I did not notice any wildlife behavior during the eclipse although someone told me later that they had heard crickets start to sing. I did not try to take any pictures of the eclipse itself (I was going to take a “snapshot” with my digital camera but I forgot all about it!) but professional photographer Shannon Hall, one of our club members, took several images. Here is a link to his Facebook page.
1:26pm Third contact. The two minute and 8 second totality at the observatory seemed like only 30 seconds. Baily’s beads reappeared, followed by the diamond ring and everything unfolded again in the reverse order. It got much brighter very quickly after the end of totality but we could still see the retreating shadow of the Moon appearing as dark skies to our east-south-east.
1:42pm We re-opened the observatory for the public. The 15 degree drop in temperature that we had experienced during totality was rapidly reversing. Through the scopes, we watched the sunspots slowly reappear one by one.
2:35pm Fourth contact. The trailing edge of the Moon slid off the face of the Sun and the eclipse was over.
Melissa and I left shortly thereafter to go home. We actually ran into more traffic going home than we did at any other time during the three day event but it still wasn’t that bad. I do believe that many people stayed home because they thought that a partial eclipse would be almost as good as a total. But anyone who has seen a total eclipse will tell you that there is no comparison. Still, I estimate that 1500 – 2000 people came through the observatory during the three day Eclipse Festival.
Was it what we expected? Pretty much. We had read and prepared enough to know most of what to expect, though no description or even pictures of previous eclipses could compare to living the moment. It was just too short to fully appreciate. It really did seem more like 30 seconds. We have a better understanding now of why some eclipse chasers count the seconds of totality they have personally experienced. Thinking ahead now to 2024….
Hi, Bob!
Thanks for the post. I was wondering how things went in LBL. I would have thought it would have been crazier than that. Wondering if it was different on the center line?
The post-eclipse traffic was worse out west, too. I guess everyone spaced their arrival out over several days, fearful of traffic. But once it was over, people wanted to go home. My wife and I killed a few hours in Rexburg before trying to drive back down to Idaho Falls. It was maybe 40 minutes driving up there early in the morning, but at least twice that getting back, even after the wait. Big backup as it approached I-15.
We spent the night in Idaho Falls. News reports had I-15 really jammed all the way down through to Salt Lake City. I think a lot of them just drove up for the day, then tried to rush back. I think they took something like 10-12 hours for what normally takes them 4 1/2 hours. But the next day was pretty normal traffic for us.