We viewed the Great American Eclipse of 2017 from Stayton, Oregon. The skies were perfectly clear, and totality lasted about 2 minutes. The sequence here begins with the partial phases at the upper right and ends at the lower left.

This was my first total solar eclipse, and it was a spectacular sight. I did not want to miss the experience by taking a lot of pictures during totality, so I put my camera on automatic and just let it take images every few seconds. The results are not great and the corona is overexposed, but at least I have some images from that memorable day.

In the minutes before totality, "shadow bands" could be seen on the ground. The temperature dropped substantially. I spotted several stars and Venus during totality. Right at the end of totality a beautiful diamond ring effect was visible.

The two pictures below show our viewing site about a minute before totality and then during the middle of totality.

Image details: Canon T6i camera with a 200 mm lens at f/5.6. Partrial phases through a solar filter, ISO 200, 1/50 second. Total phase at ISO 6400, 1/125 second.

August 21, 2017