Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Follow up and a few shots.
I had very little trouble getting to Oakridge Oregon to meet with my former crewman to start our adventure of a lifetime.
On the way up I stopped in Hyrum Utah to take delivery of a used Celestron CGEM tripod. Everything went well and the deal was completed.
Oh my what a beast compared to my AVX mount. I am adding a photo to show what I picked up.
On to Oakridge and I setup with my Lunt solar scope. I almost didn't have a weight small enough to balance it.
Tracking was spot on so I took everything down and waited for Saturday to arrive.
We decided to go to Madras on Saturday evening just in case of issues with traffic from the Solar concert/ wanna be Woodstockers.
No problems with traffic going in but we did see a lot of traffic coming out. Their loss not mine.
I was part of the Charlie Bates Solar team at the Madras High school and the intent was to have only 10,000 non staff people to limit crowd size.
They sold tickets to the event and the crowd was not overly large as a result.
I set up on Sunday night and did a polar alignment of the new scope and connected the GPS unit for the first time. I don't know if I did that correctly but it said wait for GPS or manually enter so I waited and pretty shortly it asked what kind of alignment I wanted to do. I assume that it now has the proper long and latitude so I shut down for the night to try and sleep.
Next morning we woke to a pretty decent smoke layer above from the fires from around us and Canada.
Viewing was pretty easy to setup and I used the new mount for my C6 with a Baader filter for the crowd to look at and I used the AVX for my Canon / 300mm plus 1.4 extender setup that I used for the annular eclipse back in 2012.
Everything was going well except the new tripod kept drifting. I did a second Solar alignment and I still had drift and I wonder if the GPS was giving me issues? I had performed a reset to factory the previous night to make sure I was starting from scratch and I may have lost a setting I had in Oakridge that I didn't have now. I had my teammate check it and adjust as the event went on.
The AVX was tracking right on.
I started shooting just before first contact and shot at 10 minute intervals until just before total.
I pulled my lens shroud down so that I could take the filter off at the right time and started shooting every minute waiting for total.
At total I looked up and was shocked that there was no waiting for your eyes to adjust it was blazing away.
Now comes the bad news.
I was so overwhelmed I didn't pull the filter.
I could see prominences reaching up blood red in color with the Corona blazing away in shade of white.
I have another shot just before Baileys beads that shows this very well, I need to clean it up and I will add it later.
The edge was just blazing with color and change.
I adjusted exposure, same thing and then I saw what I had done.
Long story short, my partner was shooting with his 300mm and so I sat down and watched the most amazing show I have ever seen until it was time to put filters back on. I finished shooting the rest of the eclipse and well that's the long and short of it.
I have a few years to think about it and I will now know what to expect.
Traffic leaving was fairly well thinned down by the time we broke everything down after final contact, finished answering questions and ate lunch.
I surprised to a lot of people leave as soon as total was over but not overly surprised.
I will not forget this experience.
Jim the embarrassed Pilot.

Our crowd during the early phases








Photo by David Corderman my Crew from ballooning











(Download)

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Too bad about the filter! But the other shots look good.

That's quite a collection of weights you have in the last image!

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Thank you Jim.
Rather than try and get restarted I just enjoyed what was left.

That's not all of my weights but the orange knobbed ones are new with the system.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Well, overwhelmed or not, you done good!
Remember you told me you'd been wanting this since you were a kid.
And you went and got it. Now you're a Veteran!

And you got more for your money in the CGEM. That has a lot of extra's in those fancy knobs. That's all extra.
With all those extra weights, and that long prong, it looks like it could balance a battle ship in the ADM shoe on top (optional extra, too).
You're about to force yourself into a roll-off roof Observatory.

I was very happy with my AVX's tracking for my 64% coverage here. Kept the Sun nice and centered in my camera. My only thing was discovering my film filter would give me the orange Sun I wanted, over the Baader white light filter. So I did a hat trick filter change. Worked out fine in the end. But I amassed 830 images. Way too big (apparently) to make a time lapse with to share.

Glad you're home safe and sound. I look forward to what new adventures you find with that Romulan ship tether. Any ideas of what's going to find a home on it?

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Great suite of images! It was a fun event... Onwards to 2024!

bwa

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Can we go a little slower to 2024. I'm not ready to be 7 years older!

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I wonder if I'll still be able to drive when I'm 74?
I'll be that guy, holding up the traffic....

Naw, I'll just chicken out again. I don't do crowd surges...

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Assuming I don't get hit by a bus or contract a dreaded desease I will still be short of 70.
Heck I might be able to get to my birth city for a visit. Columbus Ohio.
Ya gotta drive it like you stole it Sonny.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Actually, I do.
I call it Aggressive/Defensive Driving. I go just a smidgen faster, so I can get away from the brain dead drivers.
But their numbers are going up constantly.
So... I stay away from where they are causing the traffic jams, travel at night, or stay home and smile.
I'm always friendly with any officers I see, too. They have a target on them, the bad guys don't. And I never got a ticket I didn't earn 1,000 times over. Last time I went through a DUI stop it was a hot day. The officer asked if I'd have anything to drink today. I picked up my water bottle from the console and said, "Yes Sir! Water!" He laughed, and I offered him a frosty new bottle. He Thanked me, and pointed to an Ice Chest and said "I've got plenty." And waved me through.

Besides, I don't need to go, I have all these great friends doing that for me. They even pay their own way!

I was watching the NASA TV feed. Their camera-person was an embarrassment at Madras, OR. Even I could have held the camera better. (And I know I suck at it.) We recorded that, the Weather Channel's broadcast (better), And ABC's with David Muir (Best). NASA needs to hire Pro's for the shows.
I got worried about you, so I went hunting. You must have gotten lost because I saw your Flicker Pages with the Orygone Coast. Very nice! I thought to myself, "Jim turned the wrong way and headed to the Ocean on his way home!"
It wasn't until I scrolled down a ways I found out you did actually get there.

Have a blast with the New Beastly CGEM. Looks like one heck of a deal with all the add-on's.
Don't break your back moving it around. (Envy...)

Glad all went well and you're back home Safe and Sound!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Nothing to be embarrassed about Jim. Great work on the shots you got. I did the same setup you did and had the same drift. I think I was out of level. That has been the case before. Another possibility is you adjusted the Alt/Az instead of the mount. Anyway when you get the setup right it will track nearly perfect. Feel free to call or PM. Great job Jim.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Now wait a minute!
I've been banned from two astro forums for saying level counts. Seems they have golden boyz who tell me I'm wrong.
If I persist that it works for me, pow!
You just better not go against the golden boyz! (True Story. Now who'd want to ban a nice A'hole like me?)

I did a Factory reset, then set the mount up from there, Sun Menu alignment, and I held my tongue just right....
Maybe you forgot... to hold your tongue just right?

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

It's just my opinion and experience that level counts a lot. I use an electronic level. How could level not be important. Also when you go back to factory default the PEC is erased. Which reminds me that I did a reset and forgot to do another PEC myself. Getting old sucks.
Craig

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Level is VERY important with an Alt-Az mount (unless you're using a Celestron StarSense unit; then not important for an Alt-Az mount either). You don't need to level an EQ mount (however, if you want to waste valuable imaging time, go ahead); the only thing important with an EQ mount is that the axis of the mount points at the true location of the Earth's rotational axis (close to Polaris).

bwa

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Are you sure about PEC?
I haven't redone mine and it appeared to run in playback.
But going on 3 days of cloudyness here, I'm not even sure where my mount is...

Honey, do you know where...
Out be the pool. Dumb Fish.

Oh... yeah....

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

I don't lose any imaging time by making my tripod level. I set up in the daylight. No stars visible then, except the Sun.
When at a remote site from Home, I use bricks with holes in them for the tripods toes. That way if I decide to put the tripod away, I leave the bricks for the tripods feet the next time I pull it out.
Plunk! Same bat time, same bat channel as the night before.
A quick Polar Check, and run like heck.
I always run a fresh 6 star alignment anyway.

There is nothin dumb about bein in plumb.