They say a total eclipse of the sun is a once in a lifetime experience. It certainly feels that way, even when experiencing it for the second time. The 2024 total eclipse was plagued with unfavorable weather. After cancelling our plans for Fredericksburg TX, we pivoted to Cape Vincent, NY which was projected to be clear. As cloud predictions got worse, we pivoted again to Plattsburgh, NY and then finally to Morgan, VT. Even there the clouds did make it but only thin wispy ones that did not impact the experience. So, after 6,000 miles flown and another 1,400 miles driven we were treated, again, to that once in a lifetime experience. The things that seemed different from our last Eclipse in Oregon in 2017 were: the skies seemed darker during totality probably due to being earlier in the year and further north, temperature drop was significant and of course we were treated to 3 minutes and 19 seconds of totality vs. the 1 minute and 51 seconds in Oregon.
The other big difference was, I wanted to be handsfree and not have to deal with cameras, so I could focus on visually watching the eclipse. So all the images you see here were taken by setting cameras up before the eclipse and letting them run automatically, with one camera being controlled through a computer script to adapt exposure lengths. This allowed me to truly enjoy the experience end to end with minimum hassle. Hope you enjoy the photos.
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Equipment used:
Nikon D5000, 12mm for wide angle time lapse
Kodak PixPro 360 for wide angle video
Nikon Z7ii, 500mm on iOptron Skyguider Pro controlled by a laptop running BackyardNikon