Bud Branch

Julie and I drove up through Colorado to stay in Riverton Wyoming the weekend before the eclipse.  On the way we encountered a brushfire that stopped traffic for a couple of hours:

Once checked into our hotel, we explored the area, looking for high ground near the centerline of the eclipse track.  Here is a time-lapse movie of a drive we took up to Thermopolis – really beautiful land:

Later that evening, we backtracked to some beautiful painted rock formations – I used the drone to make some photos:

Monday morning we checked out early and headed to our spot on a plateau in the Wind River Reservation.  Car-campers had stayed there overnight, so we took up a position behind them, in the road.  We were quickly joined by many cars and RVs – we had picked  a popular place!

We set up cameras and I picked a little mandolin to pass the time – a really nice morning…

First contact was 10:20 or so – I started one camera shooting exposures at 3 minute intervals.  Everyone on the site was using eclipse glasses:

I clamped a GoPro to the rear hatch and made a time lapse video of our doings as totality approached, and after – here it is (totality happens about 9 seconds in…):

Here is a still photo I  made during totality:

I sent the drone up a couple of minutes before totality, and parked it at 400′.  I hoped to see the shadow race through, but high cirrus clouds, and the fact that the edge of the shadow is not razor sharp meant that the event is kinda subtle.  But the 360 degree sunset phenomenon is pretty cool, and it DOES get very dark!

We folded up our tripods at about 1PM and headed south, but ran into epic traffic getting out of Wyoming:

This is a composite image of 3 minute interval shots (58), and one shot of totality:

We went to a lot of trouble to witness 140 seconds of total solar eclipse, but it was totally worth it.  Photos do NOT do it justice.  There is something indescribably intense about it – I hope you witness it.  Thanks for reading – more star-related photography here.