Story Index:

Eclipse!!
08/29/2017

Summer Weekend in the Colorado Rockies
07/19/2016

Kim's Day In The Sun
02/28/2015

Tracing Roots
01/15/2015

Whitney Completes Her Master's Degree
01/10/2015

Day Trip to Moorea
11/01/2012

Stopover in Tahiti
10/30/2012

Exploring New Zealand's Northland
10/27/2012

Waiheke Island
10/24/2012

2012 Triathlon World Championships
10/23/2012

Travails with Tom-Tom
10/21/2012

Off to New Zealand!
10/18/2012

Cycling on the Oregon Coast
07/24/2012

Partial Solar Eclipse, May 20
05/23/2012

"Tour of California" Bike Race comes through town!
05/15/2012

Wildflower Triathlon a family affair
05/07/2012

Truth in Packaging?
04/01/2012

Nik Graduates from Cal Poly
12/10/2011

Cal Poly's Open House Weekend
04/17/2011

The 2010 US Census is here
03/16/2010

Cultural Musings...
09/18/2009

2009 Triathlon World Championships
09/12/2009

Sightseeing around the Gold Coast
09/09/2009

South Bank: Brisbane's Fine Arts center
09/05/2009

Brisbane, Australia
09/04/2009

Catching up . . .
08/31/2009

Summa Cum Laude, Baby!
06/15/2008

Kim completes her first Half-Ironman
06/10/2008

Kim Visits Home for Wildflower Triathlon
05/16/2008

The Last Supper
02/16/2008

Farewell, Dad
01/15/2008

Whitney Plays Final Soccer Game
12/10/2007

Watch the Women's World Cup!
09/12/2007

Kim Blazes Chicago Triathlon
08/27/2007

Nik Bicycles Pacific Coast
08/15/2007

Whitney Begins Final Season
08/13/2007

More Triathlons for Kim
06/15/2006

Corvallis gets snow!
03/09/2006

Pac-10 Conference Player of the Week
01/15/2006

Whitney's new cat
09/26/2005

Kim in Chicago Triathlon
08/31/2005

Rare family get-together
08/23/2005

Empty Nest
08/11/2005

Whitney Signs National Letter-of-Intent
02/08/2004

ODP cancels European tour
04/11/2003

Whitney renamed to Regional Team
08/07/2002

Kim graduates from Willamette
06/17/2002

Whitney Stars in High School Soccer
03/07/2002

Nik graduates from UTI
01/07/2002

2001 - A Year for Remembrance
12/30/2001

Whitney selected to the 2001 State ODP pool for U-15 Girls
03/22/2001

Kim returns from Europe
02/02/2001

2000: A Year for Traveling
12/15/2000

Kim Travels Europe
11/24/2000

Whitney selected to the US Far Western Regional ODP Pool!
07/14/2000

Congratulations to Nik, Ygnacio Valley High Graduating Class of 2000!
06/30/2000
Eclipse!!

The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.


Nik's photo of the August 21 eclipse, photographed from Glendo, Wyoming. The star, Regulus, is barely visible to the lower left of the solar corona.
But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.

As luck would have it, our house in Corvallis, Oregon, was right in the path! Corvallis is a small, college town (home of Oregon State University) between the larger cities of Portland and Eugene, Oregon. For this eclipse, however, Portland was too far north and Eugene too far south, but Corvallis happened to be just right. Summers in Oregon are always beautiful, and the chance to watch this Total Solar Eclipse was a perfect place at a perfect time of the year.

A mile to the east of us, Oregon State University hosted a viewing party at the intramural sports field, and a half-mile to the west, the county hosted a viewing party at the county fairgrounds. We (and a few dozen other locals) chose instead an open field between the two. This was accessible only by a hiking/cycling trail and offered a broad view of the horizon so we could get the "360-degree twilight" experience.



In order to experience the full effect of the spectacle, we walked to a nearby field with an unobstructed view of the sky and horizon in every direction. This is is a 360-degree panorama of our viewing location.
I took photos of the 1979 eclipse, the last previous total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States. Since it clipped only the northwest United States and was surrounded by winter storms, not that many people got to watch it.

In contrast, the 2017 eclipse would be watched by millions and many would be taking photos better than I could, so this time around I was content to just sit back and enjoy the spectacle.

However, I did take along my mini-DV camcorder to record the ambience:

My video of the August 21 solar eclipse, as viewed from Corvallis, Oregon.
We hosted about a dozen friends and family, including Whitney, who is an alumna of Oregon State University but now lives in Hawaii.


Our viewing location was shared by a herd of llamas in a neighboring field.

Nik, Kim and Brad traveled north from Colorado to watch the event from a campground at Glendo Reservoir in eastern Wyoming.

Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017 by Dan
FreeStyle Journal 19.03.21
©2003-2011 by Dan Goodell

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