Total solar eclipse 2017 blog Joe Cali

WAITING FOR THE SHADOW

Solar Eclipse Observing and Photography - Joseph Cali

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TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE
Wyoming and Idaho, August 21, 2017

Following a spectacular week in Yellowstone, we drove south to the Grand Teton National Park a very different yet equally spectacular landscape to Yellowstone.

Above: Bengt enjoys the imposing view of the Grand Tetons across Lack Jackson

The Eclipse

Composite of the solar eclipse. 1 image every 4 minutes.
Our friends Tony Crocker and Liz O'Mara had organised superb accommodation for a large group including us in condominiums at Teton Village. We were due to meet them at the accommodation at 4pm. Arriving in Jackson Hole an hour early, we went shopping. Knowing we would have a kitchen and refrigerator, we found a supermarket called Albertsons which had a remarkable array of fresh foods. Bengt had many great attributes, cooking was not one of them. Bengt's idea of cooking dinner was to order a pizza. He did however have a broad pallate. Providing I cooked he was game. We bought prawns, cod fillets, and fillet steak and a variety of fresh seasonal salad and vegetables. Arriving at the condo's we met Tony and Liz who showed us our accommodation and gave us the keys.

I made the prawns into a seafood salad first night. Bengt always loved seafood but I noticed he had set his prawns aside. He had been diagnosed with a piched nerve in his shoulder which was affecting his arm strength and mobility in fingers in his left hand. When I asked him about the prawns, he told me he couldn't peel them with one hand. He was very frustrated by this problem. I went and washed my hands and peeled them for him. It solved the immediate problem with the meal but not his frustration. He said to me, "I have a really bad feeling about this."

The next day we went up to Rendezvous Mountain to check out the location. Tony and Liz also announced a lovely surprise, that they were going to get married atop the mountain in a ceremony immediately following the eclipse. They are both mad keen skiers and ski resort reviewers as well as solar eclipse enthusiasts so this was the perfect location.

At an altitude of 3200m, the air would be extremely transparent providing mid or high level clouds didn't foil our plans.

Photo: Bird catch and release by Bengt Alfredsson

Back at the condo, a small bird had found its way inside and was repeatedly flying into the top of tall hopper windows in a futile attempt to escape. We had no way to open the windows wide and it was flying into the windows high above our reach. Eventually, it flew into a window hard enough to temporarily stun itself. I swooped in and caught it as it fell and gathered it in my hands. I held it in my hands to keep it warm while it recovered. Bengt took this photo and then I took it outside to release it.
Twas the night before eclipsemas and all through the house....not a creature was stirring. Ok you got me, it's not true. We all gathered at Tony and Liz's Condo. Weather was uncertain. Clouds overhead and while some forecasts predicted clearing very close to the start of the eclipse, others predicted clearing during or after the eclipse. Tony called up and obtained advice from friends who were expert weather forecasters for mountain weather. I had been glued to weather models recommended by eclipse weather guru

Photo: weather discussion by Liz O'Mara

Jay Anderson. We had differing opinions. It's an uncertain science. Bengt and I had observed eclipses in 2013 and 2016 through thin cloud and were very keen to avoid a repeat performance. The wedding ceremony Tony and Liz had sprung on us and the fantastic location on Rendezvous Mountain made the decision very very difficult. Tony and Liz were so lovely about it and made it really clear to everybody that they wanted people to do what they felt they needed to do to see the eclipse. I was sure the clearance was going to be close to eclipse time up on the mountain but I had no confidence that it would be before totality began. We reluctantly felt that our best option was to depart early, drive west into Idaho until we drove out from under the clearance that was gradually moving eastwards towards Wyoming. It was the difference between probably clear and definitely clear.

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