It took only minutes for the conspiracy nuts to get going about the NJ/NY earthquake yesterday. I'm glad I finally experienced an earthquake, though. Every time I was in CA, I hoped that I would feel at least a tremor.

Earthquake is 4.8; eclipse is on 4/8. "It's a conspiracy. The government is up to something! God doesn't like the northeast!"

https://www.google.com/search?q=NY+earthquake+conspiracy&oq=NY+earthquake+conspiracy&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTEzNDU1ajBqNKgCALACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If you have to wonder why the world is in such a mess, it simple. Human beings are in charge. People are idiots! Look at how worked up people got over a tremor.

Yesterday I tried to photograph the annular eclipse from my home in central Texas. I used my D500 and 500mm PF 5.6 lens with a solar filter (NISI ND100000(5.0), shooting in live mode and using a tripod and remote shutter button. Things were going passably well until about 20 minute before the "ring of fire". I suddenly couldn't take pictures and the top screen showed an "Err" message. I checked my manual (page 16) and it said it was probably related to the lens connection and recommended taking the lens off and remounting it, which I did, without success at getting the camera working. I set the camera aside (in the shade) and enjoyed the "ring of fire" with solar glasses. About 20 minutes later the camera was working fine and I was able to finnish taking pictures of the remaining phases of the eclipse. I forgot to mention, the first thing I did was change the battery, thinking a low battery might be the culprit. Any ideas as to what happened? Perhaps heat related? Anything I should do (maybe send the camera in for service)? Attached are a couple of photos I took yesterday when my camera was functioning. As always, thanks for your input and help. Tom McC