The Great North American Eclipse
Day One - Big Bend & the Great North American Eclipse - 2024
One heck of a stressful day! But it was so worth it.
1. Partial Eclipse #1
In Burnet, Texas the 2024 Great North American Eclipse lasted 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 33 seconds.
Generally speaking, eclipse days are stressful events. First, there is the weather forecast you have to deal with, which will often dictate where you are going to be viewing the eclipse. Second, there is traffic, which can make arriving at said viewing location difficult. Finally, there is the act of photographing the event, which requires timely setup and remembering camera settings you use, well, very infrequently.
My morning on 8 April 2024 was a chaotic mix of all three. The main story for the day was the weather, with clouds threatening to obscure views all across the line of totality in Texas. I had been meticulously monitoring the cloud forecasts and knew that my planned destination for the day, Garner State Park, wasn’t looking too great. I also knew that I had to get from my San Antonio hotel to my alternate viewing location no later than noon - it was about 7AM at that point, and the clock was ticking!
Using the methodology I have developed during previous eclipses, I found a pocket of sky that was projected to be relatively clear that was also reachable by noon, centered around the city of Burnet, Texas, just northwest of Austin. Hitting the interwebs, I found that a church -Hill Country Fellowship- was selling eclipse parking spots and access to their large field. I was convinced.
San Antonio traffic is normally bad, but -great googly moogly- Eclipse Day brought out the panic in everyone it seems! I cautiously made my way up Route 281, doing my best to cautiously navigate this road which was clearly not made for this once-in-a-lifetime event. But I arrived in Burnet, safe and sound, and with about 30 minutes to get set up.
It was incredibly overcast when I arrived, although my forecast model had anticipated this and I was not deterred. There were patches of clear skies to the east and were generally moving in our direction, which was encouraging. A single cloud obscured first contact (the beginning of the partial eclipse), but politely moved out of the way moments later.
I knew that clouds were going to be a persistent issue, but this mattered little during the over two hours of partial eclipse. I was getting a break every few minutes and could sneak in a quick photograph or two. In the meantime, I spent time chatting with my “neighbors” who had come into town from Denver Colorado, or looking up with my solar glasses.
I looked, worryingly, to the east asking myself the same question: when the time for totality came, would the clouds be there?
Seven cloud-free partial eclipse photographs follow.
2. Partial Eclipse #2
3. Partial Eclipse #3
4. Partial Eclipse #4
5. Partial Eclipse #5
6. Partial Eclipse #6
7. Partial Eclipse #7
8. Partial Eclipse #8
9. Total Eclipse #1
In Burnet, Texas totality lasted 4 minutes, 22 seconds.
As the clock hit 1:30PM -less than five minutes from totality- I stared up at the now mostly obscured sun to see it completely hazed over by the clouds. During the earlier phases of the eclipse, the sun’s rays were powerful enough to pierce through these thin wisps, but no longer. My eyes turned back to the east, at which point I could see just above the horizon a patch of clear sky moving towards us. It wasn’t much -maybe 30 degrees across and 30 degrees wide, or about 4 percent of the sky- but it was tracking pretty well.
1:34PM, 50 seconds until totality. The sky was getting really dark, but the sun was still blocked by cloud. But, man, that clear patch was getting really close. 1:34:30PM, 20 seconds until totality. The sun’s corona appeared, punching through the now thin outer bands of cloud. I glanced over to the east - the clearing was almost there! 1:34:40PM, 10 seconds until totality. The “diamond ring” appeared, followed shortly by the Baily’s Beads. Finally, at 1:34:50PM, we reached totality. A roar came forth from the crowd! In my pursuit of photographing previous total eclipses, I had never actually seen second contact (the beginning of totality) unaided before. What a sight!
Then -finally!- about 30 seconds later, the clouds parted and I was able to take some photographs of totality. Not knowing if this would last a few seconds or a few minutes, I held the shutter button down until I hit the camera’s write buffer. Turns out this was unnecessary - we proceeded to have almost four minutes of completely cloud-free skies. All the planning paid off!
The few minutes of totality are both the longest and shortest minutes of your life as a photographer: they feel like the longest ones because you remember them forever, but they are also the shortest because your brain has to execute a mental checklist in very short order. Metering an eclipse is incredibly important, and during past total eclipses I had the chance to dial in my equipment based on light readings I was getting in the moments leading up to totality. I didn’t get a chance this go-around because of all of the cloud cover, so I spent the next four minutes somewhat blindly adjusting camera settings - the ol’ spray-and-pray.
This, combined with the relief of just being able to see the eclipse to begin with, resulted in a relatively small haul of photos compared to past iterations. And, you know what? I’m totally fine with that! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: total eclipses are nature’s greatest spectacle and we are unbelievably fortunate to be able to see them at all.
Four more photographs of totality follow.
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Now back to the travelogue!
10. Total Eclipse #2
11. Total Eclipse #3
12. Total Eclipse #4
13. Total Eclipse #5
14. Partial Eclipse #9
Third contact (the end of totality) came and went, so I transitioned back to shooting the partial eclipse camera (I run a two-camera setup because I don’t want to have to worry about lens or filter changes as we transition to totality.)
Within minutes, the clouds rolled back in. Honestly, I’m still amazed I was able to see the eclipse at all.
Two more photographs of the partial eclipse phase follow - these were the best ones I could manage, which gives you an idea of just how cloudy it was outside!
15. Partial Eclipse #10
16. Partial Eclipse #11
And with that, the 2024 Great North American eclipse was over. But, for better or worse, my day was long from over! I still had to drive six hours across Central and West Texas to arrive at my overnight stop in Alpine. Boy, did I hit the pillow hard that night, I was completely exhausted. But more fun (and more messed up sleep) was to follow the next few days at Big Bend National Park!
