That's no moon… oh wait

My janky 3D printed Dobson stand

Well on Oct 14 the annular solar eclipse happened and it was amazing… sort of.

I bought a telescope to play with schlieren photography and it worked, but now there’s an eclipse coming. First thing I got some solar filter as to not burn my retina but then that showes something else. The problem was the stand was about as stable as hydrazine flowing over iridium. So cut to me the week of in a crunch making a 3D printed/scrap wood Dobsonian mount. To my surprise it actually worked. That’s one step out of the way to see the eclipse up close.

Checking the weather the night before, frequently, it looked 50/50 as to if it would be overcast. I rolled the dice and hit the road at about 7am to drive 3 hours south to be in the primary path of the eclipse. Most of the way there there was open sky, bright and sunny. but as I got closer to Choke Canyon state park I started seeing more cloud cover. Could I have turned around or stopped at another park yes, but I didn’t so when I got there… clouds.

☁️☁️☁️☁️🌥️☁️☁️

Being at the park I could either move or stay put and hope theres a break. Which is exactly what I did.

Overall there were a few breaks and the clouds actually blocked enough light one could almost see the eclipse unaided. But seeing the totality of the eclipse, in person, was truly great. Would I change some things, sure but overall it was worth every minute

Now about April 2024…