the Eclipse

Our friends Bev and Whitey invited us to Jackson WY for the Eclipse, so we accepted and drove 9 hours hoping that there would be no clouds or smoke from nearby fires. The 100% path crossed right over their house, so it was bound to be excellent. We just needed to find the "right place". Well, Bev knew just where -- on the clearing up on Black Tail Butte. So off we went at 7:00 AM to hike to reach the spot.

We got there to find a couple of "eclipse nerds" already setting up cameras. One group had 3 and one couple had 4 -- serious eclipse nerds. The guys from England mentioned that this was their 6th eclipse. The couple from SF drove out just for this, their first one.

Then the crowd swelled. People from all over... NZ, England, Germany, France, -- lots of eclipse nerds and plenty of shared information. There was quite a bit of exhibition of how to view by creating a pin hole "camera", using fingers, binoculars, and even a colander!  About 55-60 people all totaled and we asked many "How did you decide to come up here?" most replied, "Well we just looked up and saw it was the high point" so they trudged, bushwhacked, found the trail or whatever, -- most were just determined.

Bev expected a few locals, but none showed up.

One person was a professional photographer and she was very eager to have folks take a look at her stuff. (not sure when it will be available), www.dellahuff.com or dellybean on instagram (need an account)

Look it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a solar eclipse!


First arrivals



Lot's of time to kill as we wait for the show to begin.






Crowd growing, lots of anticipation


It is starting!



The colander trick -- hundreds of semi-suns!
Colander was imported all the way from Dorsett UK (and it wasn't going back) -- now residing in Kelly WY.



Everyone get ready!






Shadows started to look odd  - don't know why.


It started to get cold. And we were looking for "the Shadow" - - kept looking but nothing really seemed to happen.



After this, we pretty much just watched and were able to take glasses off at the totality. Now that was cool!

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