Eclipse 2017

 We have loved using our telescope to view the stars and planets and clusters and the moon from our very own driveway. We were excited for the Eclipse happening on August 21, 2017. From our home in Utah you could see the eclipse, but not the total eclipse where the entire sun was eclipsed. Luckily for us, Brian's uncle Allan Morton is an enthusiastic astronomer and lives in Rexburg, which happened to be in the eclipse path. He has been preparing for this eclipse for years and invited us to come stay with him to see the total eclipse. We ordered our eclipse glasses early and made plans to visit. Elliott is off track so he didn't have to miss school. We loaded up and left Friday morning. 

 We arrived at 2 pm and set up camp in the backyard. We had a great spot under a big tree! Elliott had books to read and second cousins to play with. Peyton and Paisley were happy to play in the backyard with Elliott and Trevor. 

The overgrown garden had awesome trails for the kids to explore! Trevor got lost once and would pull on my hand asking, "Which way?" so I would go with him. 

 Elliott looks grumpy but he is just in deep conversation.

 Trevor and Paisley played so well together too!

Trevor spent hours on the swings and we were grateful they were in shade a lot of the time. Trevor liked to swing high and was very proud to swing like a big boy now.  

 We heard him saying, "You push me," all weekend long. 

 The kids having a pretzel break before dinner. 

 Paxton came over too and is 1 month younger than Trevor and so they had fun playing together too.

 We had a great night sleeping in the tent and on Saturday we went a few blocks up the hill to the Rexburg Temple. We walked around, enjoying the beautiful and peaceful grounds. Trevor loves the temple and wanted to go in so badly! We let him touch it and took his picture with Elliott.

 As we were walking around, Melinda and Eric's family drove by on the way to Allan's and they stopped and Nigel jumped out from behind a pillar to surprise us! We were surprised! They headed to Allan's to unload and we drove around the campus of BYU-Idaho to let Trevor fall asleep. Then we transferred him to the tent for a nap and mostly watched the Canfields set up camp too. My good friend Tammy and her 3 kids also arrived for the eclipse weekend. We helped her set up and then we all went to Porter Park to ride the carousel and play on the playground and get wet on the splash pad. 

We were not prepared for a splash pad...so Elliott, Lindsey, Marissa, McKay and part of Trevor got soaking wet. There was a tube slide and smaller slides and the kids had a blast and got drenched. We went back to Allan and Jaime's and hung the clothes up on the clothesline to dry. After they changed, I joked with Brian that since I didn't take any pictures, it is like it didn't happen. But it happened and we all enjoyed ourselves. 

On Sunday we ate pancakes that Jaime had prepared for the masses, then got ready for church. It was nice that their ward met at 1 pm, so that all had time to share the bathrooms and get ready. With only 2 bathrooms, however, I got creative and used our outdoor charging station to get ready. 

 Brian and Allan both sported their constellation ties that Marsha bought for them. 

The kids enjoyed primary and nursery and we went back to the house to help Jaime prepare for dinner. Allan hosted the technical questions and helped us all get excited for the eclipse, but Jaime worked so hard to make sure everyone had a space and was welcome and comfortable and she made so much food for us all. We had a delicious turkey meal with potatoes and stuffing and rolls. 

Melinda and I both kept telling Brian on Saturday to wear a hat or put on sunscreen, but he didn't listen until his head was burning. Now he understands why Arden always wears a hat outside....bald heads are sensitive to sunlight. Brian happily wore the hat the rest of the weekend.

 After dinner, Allan shared a slideshow of pictures from his last 2 total eclipse adventures, Washington in 1979 and Baja in 1991. He had some incredible pictures and stories. Here is his domed observatory he built in high school. (With tents for us campers included.)

And here is Allan with his newer, roll-top observatory.

Here is a view of Tammy's tent and the swing set and our tent way under the tree. 

 Sunday was pretty cloudy and reports showed it would be partly cloudy on Monday, but we awoke to clear blue skies and a perfect day to have an eclipse. Jaime had banana and zuchini breads and all the rest of us brought dozens of Costco muffins so there was plenty for breakfast. Allan was finishing up his filter and assembling all his equipment and we all got our eclipse glasses ready. 

Jaime, our wonderful host is on the left, then Tammy with Marissa, then Marie and Corrine Orton (family of Allan's former student and friend, Brent Orton.)

Tammy and Marissa.

Nigel relaxing and watching the moon inch over the sun. 

 As is started, you could see the indent in the top right of the sun. It was pretty awesome to see.

 Then it was easier to see the eclipse in a photo.

At this point, I picked up Trevor and held up the eclipse glasses and asked if he could see the sun with a piece missing. He could see it.

 But Trevor didn't find it that fascinating and so this is how he spent most of the eclipse. At least he was watching some PBS cartoons with an outer space theme. 

Here is Allan attaching the filter to his telescope and Brent getting other equipment ready. We unplugged the fridge in the basement to use the extension cord and we used our power strip for all the fancy gear.  

Karen helped Cora look at the sun. Samuel preferred to play trains indoors, but was brought out right before totality. 

At this point, I made Brian take my picture too -it was so cool to watch the moon begin to cover the sun. (Also notice the satellite behind me so Allan can watch NASA-TV.)

I got this picture on my camera, it was a little better than my cell phone camera. I told the kids that the sun looked like the moon now. 

We saw some cool tree projections. Lisette sent some pictures from the U and Wendy sent some from Oregon so everyone enjoyed this phenomenon. I thought it was cool that that the beginning of the eclipse formed half-circle shadows on top, and after the total eclipse, the half-circle shadows were the bottom half of a circle. 

We all milled about, checking the progress of the moon.

As it got closer to totality time, we set Elliott up with the tablet camera by a sheet to see if he could capture the shadow bands. We didn't see any after all.

Here Brian is viewing the sun with Lindsey, Elliott, Marissa and McKay also watching. Haven is inadvertently photo-bombing. McKay was more excited about watching the sun than Trevor was. 

It started getting dimmer and cooler before the sun was totally covered, but it was amazing how much light just a sliver of the sun produced. It was still daylight until the sun was totally covered and then boom - darkness. Here is a picture Allan took with his 800 mm camera right before the total eclipse.

And another of Allan's pictures. The shine around the moon was so spectacular that pictures can't even come close to the majesty and beauty and awe we felt just seeing it. 

Here is a picture Brent Orton took and shared. 

I started taking a video right before the total eclipse to show how dark it was getting. You can hear how excited we all became as Venus became visible and as the sun slipped behind the moon. I became so excited that I turned off the camera, but you can just hear the cheering across all of Rexburg as the eclipse started and my video ended. 

I tried taking another quick video to show how dark it was and how incredible. On my cheap camera, the glow around the moon was so bright that it only looks like a tiny dot in the middle of the sun. 

I ran over to pick up Trevor so he could see and told him to look at the sun and he asked, "What sun?" Then I told him the sun was black and he said, "Sun come back." I put him back with his movie and just enjoyed the brief 2 minutes of totality with Brian and Elliott. 

When the sun peeked back around the moon, it was pure brilliance and then we had to put the glasses back on and it got brighter once again. McKay liked it so much he said, "Dark 'gain?" We all wanted to see it again. It was incredible! Once it brightened up a bit, Trevor was ready to swing once more. 

Here is how I watched the rest of the eclipse, with Trevor swinging. 

After all the excitement, Trevor and I took naps and a few people left and Melinda went to the park with Nigel and Tammy took the kids to see the crowds and souvenirs. Elliott bought a poster and a sword that broke. We packed up in the late afternoon and left at 7 pm. Traffic was as bad as we feared and we arrived home at 2 am. But Elliott and Trevor were happy in the van with the tablet and dvd player and then they slept. Between Malad and Tremonton, we pulled off on an exit to switch drivers and the sky was incredible! There were no lights around and we could see the Milky Way stretching all across the sky and there were so many stars that it was hard to pinpoint any constellations. If it hadn't been 1 am, we might have spent longer gazing at those stars. But it was late and we wanted to be home. 

It was a great experience to be able to see the eclipse with Allan and all the family and friends. They made the experience richer and we loved being a part of it. Thank you Allan and Jaime! It really was worth the effort to see a total eclipse. WOW!