I'm sitting in a dark hotel room on the eve of my first - and possibly only - total solar eclipse, with my partner and step-son, and I am positively awash with emotions.
I have been waiting for this day for 30 years, since my first partial eclipse in May of 1994. That was an underwhelming experience for many reasons, but not the least of them was that I had nothing and no one to view the eclipse with.
Three decades, two astronomy degrees, 5 years operating a planetarium, and 5 years as a guide at the local observatory later, and I'm fully prepared. Today, I have more viewing glasses than i have fingers, two cameras with filters, I have my family, and I am smack dab in the middle of the path of totality.
And the forecast calls for clear skies.
I can't believe it. I can't believe that this is actually happening for me. That everything looks like it's going to work out.
The only disappointment is that I discovered that Potato World exists - it's the New Brunswick potato museum (and it's next door to my hotel) - but it's closed!
Pictures turned out ok! I should have done a dry run for my totality setup, as I wanted to do some bracketed exposures and assumed my DSLR would let me do that the same way in live display mode as it does in optical viewfinder mode, and it... didn't. But the pictures I did get are a reasonable, if insufficient facsimile of the experience.
As for the real deal... I'll have to update everyone once I've processed it. It was clear as crystal, and a perfect day. I was totally unprepared in every way that mattered. I don't yet have words.
Sounds like it was enjoyable. My son's mother took him out of school and drove them 2.5 hours to go see it in totality.
That seems like a lot of work for potato world.