2017 Idaho Eclipse

Earlier in 2017, we started planning for what people are now calling the "Great American Solar Eclipse." Neither of us had ever experienced a full solar eclipse, and this seemed like a good opportunity. The path of the eclipse stretched from coast to coast, including the Northeast corner of Georgia just a few hours drive from Atlanta. However, we're very familiar with how cloudy summer afternoons in Georgia can be, with pop-up thunderstorms that could ruin any chance of seeing an eclipse. So we did some research and found that the areas of the country with the least chance of cloud cover in late August were western Idaho and eastern Oregon. David had never been to Idaho, and Paul had only been to the part near Yellowstone, so it was an opportunity to explore a new state and have a good chance of seeing the total eclipse. We booked lodging and flights way in advance (and still ended up paying inflated prices), packed our bags, and flew to Boise.

The day of the Eclipse we left Boise at 6AM to drive north into the path of totality. There was a lot of talk about traffic, and we think that scared off some people. While traffic was heavy for that early on a Monday morning, there were no traffic jams and we had no problems. We found a spot to park and watch in Weiser, just a few miles away from the center-line of the eclipse. Weiser was busy, with a lot of people walking around town. We walked around a bit too, checked out the festival, found a good spot and settled in to watch the eclipse.

This is definitely the most people that have ever been in Weiser. The few restaurants downtown had lines out the door.

We stopped by the festival site downtown and got some breakfast tacos.

There were a lot of signs all around town.

Just Paul posing with another eclipse sign!

We found a spot just north of downtown and joined hundreds of others to watch.

A guy next to us built an elaborate viewing tube that everyone was checking out.

Crowds gathered for the eclipse.

Ready for the eclipse with a special local beer.

Proper eclipse eye protection.

Ready for totality!

I think this plane was turning to give passengers an eclipse view.

From where we were (44.2586° N, 116.9682° W), the eclipse started at 10:10AM and lasted until 12:48PM, with 2 minutes and 6 seconds of totality occurring at 11:26AM. When it first started, we could see the moon starting to move across the face of the sun using our solar glasses. As the partial eclipse continued, there was a noticeable difference in lighting and temperature. We managed to get a few pictures as the eclipse proceeded. You can't point your camera right at the sun - sounds obvious enough - it damages the sensors and the picture wouldn't come out anyway. We don't have a fancy camera, but Paul bought a piece of filter paper (the same stuff eclipse glasses use) and held it in front of his camera lens and sensors. Kind of a low-budget solar camera filter - and it worked!

Part way through the eclipse.

Going...

Going...

A tiny sliver of sun still visible a few minutes before totality.

Full eclipse! This lasted for 2 minutes and 6 seconds. The picture doesn't even begin to capture what it looked like in person.

It was absolutely eerie. Dark sky and what looked like dawn 360 degrees around us.

Birds flocking right after totality. We hadn't seen any birds all morning.

It was amazing to see the shadow move in. Totality was really bizarre. A few minutes before the sunlight looks really weird. There's one last flash of light (the diamond ring effect), then it was safe to remove our glasses and observe the full eclipse. The corona was incredible; a bright white halo surrounding a black orb. We could clearly see an orange solar prominence as well. The two minutes of totality flew by. After the total eclipse ended, we could see the sunlight moving across the distant mountains. It very quickly grew bright again, and the streetlights tuned off. 

The solar eclipse was an amazing experience. It's hard to describe just how different 100% is from even 99%. If you ever have the chance to observe totality, do it! So, any plans for 2024? :)