The total solar eclipse was this past Monday, August 21, and I was fortunate to witness the path of totality. I started my trip north into totality at 4:00 AM that morning from Twin Falls, Idaho and eventually made it into a small town called Mackay, Idaho. I made the decision to go there because it was one out of the sixty locations that NASA had set up telescopes at to study the solar corona.
While looking for a spot to set up my tripod and camera, I was a approached by a woman, who I later found out was the head of the NASA outreach effort for that location. After talking, she graciously let me stay behind the roped off area where the two NASA researchers and a USA Today photographer were working.
A couple hours later, the eclipse began at 9:13 am and the moon slowly started to cover the sun. And at 10:30 am, the moon had covered the sun for two minutes and 13 seconds. The surrounding landscape became dark, the temperature dropped, a 360 degree twilight filled the sky, and above was a black disc with a ring of vibrant white light exploding from its edge.
