I can't believe it's finally here! Well, over, really. Can't believe that either! When we moved to Oregon in 2008, that was one of the first things we realized: We'd have a total solar eclipse in 2017, with Salem being in the path of totality! I remember I told my Astronomy class about it, without realizing (at that point) that 8 or 9 years is a very long time for students, and that probably none of them would be in the Salem area at that point anymore!
Well, but we're still here and we were EXCITED! Since traffic jams had been forecast for Monday, we decided to pack our hiking gear and drive to Salem on Sunday evening. The traffic at that point was absolutely fine (as in, same as always), but we really didn't want to miss it. Our two mattresses fit snugly underneath my desk, and Pepper immediately claimed them (despite having a fantastic dog bed in his kennel!).
I won't lie, it wasn't super comfy. So I got up early (as in 2:30ish). Traffic turned out to be fine until about 5 or 6 am; that's when the roads started filling up a little. But camping in the office just added to the overall excitement!
Breakfast was frozen waffles & fruit (luxurious!),
and after a walk through Bush park (where lots of excited visitors had camped over night) we set up camp on the roof of Collins.
As the Moon started nibbling away at the Sun, the light became very ... odd. Kinda like looking through sunglasses without wearing any. I can't really describe it, but on a very basic emotional level, it just felt... wrong to have that lighting at that time of day with the Sun that high in the sky. Here are two photos that capture it a little (although it was a lot more drastic in real life). The first is earlier in the day, before the first contact, and the second is just a few minutes before totality.
Another fun thing to watch while waiting for totality were the crescent Suns that popped up underneath trees (the leaves acted like little pinholes and were projecting an image of the Sun onto the pavement).
We could also recreate that by forming a small whole with our fists!
All the while, Jan took photos of the ever slimming Sun with our Nikon. We had cut one pair of eclipse glasses and attached them to the camera, so the image quality is not super-awesome.
And then - BAM! Totality was here. Photos (and words) just can't do it justice. It is an immensely emotional experience. The sky goes dark, the center of the Sun is a very black black, and the corona around it is a lot wispier and fluffier than it looks in photos (the dynamic range of a camera just isn't as good as the one of our own eyes!). Absolutely stunning. Jan was constantly saying "Wow. Oh wow.", while I was sobbing. The two minutes flew by! And we were left wondering when we would see the next one.
And here's a video of "nightfall". The camera auto-adjusts (that's also why you can't really see totality in the video), but I think the overall feel still comes across!
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