Witnessing a Total Solar Eclipse

By the time this is posted, by the time you read this, the eclipse will be long over. You will have been flooded by images and descriptions of this event from thousands of sources. However, this blog is a personal diary, I will put down my thoughts and memories before they grow dim, post my photos, and preserve the experience for myself.

Solar Corona
An HDR view of the solar corona from the 21Aug2017 solar eclipse

Our plan was simple, camp out well ahead of time in a site that had been carefully selected and scouted. Jody and Larry camped along side this little pretty meadow earlier in the summer, noting that it would serve quite well. They also arrived first, five days before the eclipse, and minutes ahead of others that sought this same place.

The plan worked, and worked well. In the days leading up to the eclipse dozens of vehicles came past, each looking with envy at those who had arrived early to claim the best spots. The stream of vehicles continued late into Sunday eve, no matter, this forest offers room for all.

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Processing the Eclipse

Processing the frames to produce a deeper view of the solar corona is not easy. This is the best I have achieved so far. You can still see some ring like artifacts where the layers have been merged. I will be working further to improve this, but it may come down to retouching by hand to eliminate the issues.

The image is an HDR merge of five images taken from 1/500 to 1/4sec exposures with the TV-76 and a Canon EOS M5. Extensive corona and a couple prominences can be seen.

Solar Corona
An HDR view of the solar corona from the 21Aug2017 solar eclipse

Mercury at Inferior Conjunction

Today Mercury will be at inferior conjunction. After today the planet will reappear in the dawn, rising high enough from the Sun’s glow to be seen in mid September.

Mercury Transit 9May2016
Mercury transiting the Sun on May 9, 2016. Celestron C8 and Canon 6D at f/10.
Inferior conjunction is when the planet passes between the Sun and the Earth. As such the only planets to see inferior conjunction are Mercury and Venus. A transit is possible if the planet passes directly in front of the Sun, but normally this alignment does not occur, the planet passing above or below the Sun as seen from the Earth. There are no transits of Mercury in 2017, the next will be Nov 11, 2019.

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Fixing Slippahs

One of the necessary life skills in the islands is the ability to fix a slippah. Yes, I know the mainland calls this minimal footwear sandals or flip-flops, but here they are called slippers or slippahs.

Slippah Clip
A bit of heavy steel wire to repair a broken slipper strap clip.
The usual failure is the clip that holds the strap into the sole,a simple plastic item subject to wear as you walk. You could say this is simple bad design, but it really does not fail often and slippahs are pretty cheap to start with.

Plus, it is easy to fix.

My wife can relate a dozen slippah fixing tricks from around the school where she works. Many of the kids wear them and teachers learn all the tricks to fixing them when they inevitably break. From putting a bread clip on the central knob, to using a paper clip to replace the little side clips.

In my case it is one of the plastic clips that has failed. I used some heavy wire a touch more substantial than a paper clip.