Well, I confess, I was one of the millions of people who clogged the nations highways by traveling to an area of totality for the 2017 coast-to-coast total eclipse. I had been reading a great book called
American Eclipse by David Barron and had learned a lot of new facts about eclipses. So, I wanted to be in an area of totality and at a higher elevation so I could possibly view the shadow racing across the landscape. I chose Tellico Plains Tennessee a four drive away and rural enough to maybe escape some of the crowds; but, was I wrong about that. I stayed Sunday night at a hotel 60 miles away and headed to Tellico before 6am. I kept seeing cow fields with 'eclipse parking $25' signs and scoffed at the idea that anyone would do that, but later that afternoon as I returned, I noticed that those same fields were full. For elevation I had decided to drive up the
Cherohala Skyway until I found an overlook to the west. Traffic was light that early and I thought I had scored a crowd free area until I arrived at the Turkey Creek overlook at 2600 feet in elevation. The lot was full, people were parking all over the road sides and three police cars were there to direct traffic. Even though it was 7 AM, I had almost waited to long. Most people had stayed the night there and reserved sitting space. I parked on the shoulder of the road because I was afraid to drive further. There was a westerly view and I found a place to setup my chair with no view unless I was standing (and beside the restrooms where everyone going had to walk through my setup). The crowd was large and lively which made the hours pass quickly. I was in shade until noon but then the sun hit full blast and I had to hike back to the car for an umbrella. There was a lot of fancy equipment set up but I only had my iphone and Nikon DSLR. I had read about eclipse photography and knew there was precious little time to take pictures. I had downloaded an app that was supposed to take a series of pictures automatically for a research project, but I could not get it going.
About two minutes before totality, we could see the shadow approaching and it was worth all of the trouble to be there. Then during totality I took several pictures of the eclipsed sun and tried a couple of different exposures on a tripod, but only had decent results. For one thing, it was dark, which made adjustments to the camera difficult. Plus, I wanted to heed the advice that I saw repeated a lot; 'put the equipment down and just look.' I did that for a while, but kept thinking, 'wow, i should take a picture of that.' The 2 1/2 minutes passed so quick, and the instant the sun peeped back from behind the moon, it was daylight again. I wish I had better pictures, but the experience was great.
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| Crowds at Turkey Creek Overlook on Cherohala Skyway |
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| Panorama of the overlook and valley to the west |
The four hour trip home took 8 hours and was miserable. Even so, I am already making plans for 2024 when the closet place to view that event will be in Ohio.
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Approach to Turkey Creek Overlook on the Cherohala Skyway
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These three photos are screenshots of a video, it shows the shadow
approaching from the west and covering us within a minute, turning daylight to dark.. |
Well, I confess, I was one of the millions of people who clogged the nations highways by traveling to an area of totality for the 2017 coast-to-coast total eclipse. I had been reading a great book called American Eclipse by David Barron and had learned a lot of new facts about eclipses. So, I wanted to be in an area of totality and at a higher elevation so I could possibly view the shadow racing across the landscape. I chose Tellico Plains Tennessee a four drive away and rural enough to maybe escape some of the crowds; but, was I wrong about that. I stayed Sunday night at a hotel 60 miles away and headed to Tellico before 6am. I kept seeing cow fields with 'eclipse parking $25' signs and scoffed at the idea that anyone would do that, but later that afternoon as I returned, I noticed that those same fields were full. For elevation I had decided to drive up the Cherohala Skyway until I found an overlook to the west. Traffic was light that early and I thought I had scored a crowd free area until I arrived at the Turkey Creek overlook at 2600 feet in elevation. The lot was full, people were parking all over the road sides and three police cars were there to direct traffic. Even though it was 7 AM, I had almost waited to long. Most people had stayed the night there and reserved sitting space. I parked on the shoulder of the road because I was afraid to drive further. There was a westerly view and I found a place to setup my chair with no view unless I was standing (and beside the restrooms where everyone going had to walk through my setup). The crowd was large and lively which made the hours pass quickly. I was in shade until noon but then the sun hit full blast and I had to hike back to the car for an umbrella. There was a lot of fancy equipment set up but I only had my iphone and Nikon DSLR. I had read about eclipse photography and knew there was precious little time to take pictures. I had downloaded an app that was supposed to take a series of pictures automatically for a research project, but I could not get it going.
