A total solar eclipse is an incredibly rare event that for many only occurs once in a lifetime. And now it's my turn, as just such an eclipse will be passing directly over Cleveland.
Jackson Wally and I have been planning our watch party for months in advance. I originally selected a park East of Cleveland; right on on the lake to watch from, but the weather was predicted to be overcast, with a slight chance it would be clearer in the Sandusky area, so I found a park in the path of totality south of Sandusky, near a small town called Vermilion.
Jackson agreed to drive us, since I had just driven up from Columbus the day before, so I met at his house to join him and his girlfriend Molly as we set out to pick up Wally and make our way West.
It was predicted that huge crowds would be gathering to watch this once in a lifetime event, but despite the predictions of absolutely terrible traffic conditions, we didn't have any issues reaching our destination. It seems I picked a good spot!
Jackson's friend Shannon was also going to be joining us, and we heard from her that a park ranger had suggested a soccer field just a few minutes away from the park we originally picked, as it might have a more unobstructed view of the sky.
After arriving, we had basically the entire place to ourselves. After taking some group photos that I wasn't in, we started setting up our stuff, and I tried to puzzle out the best settings to use for my nice DSLR. We also tried out the lightbox camera I made, but couldn't get it to work.
We had an overabundance of sun watching glasses, and I tried to use one to try and take pictures of the sun with my my smartphone, which turned out about as well as you would expect.
Wally also brought a filter specifically to fit over a larger camera lens, though I had to tape it in place.
It took awhile to get the settings and aim right, which required a lot of trial and error. One interesting thing I noticed later is that the lens flares on some of the failed pictures show the partial eclipse in their shape.
Eventually, I tried just setting it to automatic, which ended up producing way better results than anything I had tried, so I just left it on that.
At last, it was time for totality. The whole world became twilight, as the sounds of evening bugs and birds filled the air. It was an incredibly profound experience.
Also, I think the smaller dot is Jupiter, which I read would also be visible.
It lasted for about 3-4 minutes, during which someone nearby started setting off fireworks.
10/10, would stare directly at the sun again.
As the totality ended, you could see the shadow moving away. I also captured a few more pictures of the crescent.
After chatting a bit longer, we packed up our stuff and headed back to the Vermilion River Reservation, where we had originally planned to watch from. The plan was to go for a short hike and then get dinner somewhere.
Also, Wally really wanted to touch a frog, but he always wants that
No frogs, but there were some turtles.
It turned out the place we headed to was not actually the trail head, but there was a nice river, and we ended up hanging out there for awhile. Shannon is dangerously adventurous.
On the way back, I spotted a little garter snake, and Shannon and Wally could not resist the urge to pick it up. After all, what is a snake if not an elongated frog?
The snake was not thrilled about this.
While we waited for Shannon to wash her snake bite, and ask 2 park rangers about any potential diseases, Molly and I went to look at another part of the river that had a waterfall.
As we were preparing to leave for dinner, one of the policeman advised us to not pick up any more snakes, to which Wally gave the most insincere "Yeah sure" I have ever heard. It was as if he had, at that moment, at least 3 snakes secreted about his person while saying it.
We drove int Vermilion to get dinner, and it turned out to be an absolutely lovely seaside town., with a lot of local character. The restaurant we picked was going to be a bit of a wait, so we walked down to the lake Erie shore to pass the time.
Once we got back to the restaurant, I talked with Shannon about anime, for which we have very similar taste. She was very excited that I listed the Demon Girl Next Door as my favorite magical girl show.
The conversation was nice, but it ended up taking an unreasonably long time for the food to come out. Everyone was getting a bit stressed, since Molly had a birthday party she needed to get to, and it was starting to look like she would be late for it.
In the end, the food did come, and was tasty. Wally also drove home with Shannon, which let Molly get home sooner, and thus make it on time.
