Total Solar Eclipse 2017

I live in a pretty cool place, from a certain nerdy viewpoint. 119 species of birds, two years running, might indicate a certain predictability, but a closer look at the data destroys that notion.

So how cool is this place, really? My subjective measures include things like species counts, whether I can get reasonable photos, etc. Subjective in this case means entirely subjective. So what might tip this place into Coolest Place I Have Ever Lived?

Yeah, that might do it. Though no photo did it justice. Film doesn't have the dynamic range, and digital cameras are worse in that respect. There's a wide pearlescant glow from the solar corona seen IRL which is entirely missing from short exposure times. This image predates optimizing over a set of stacked images.

It's a photo of a photo that has been hanging on some wall of pretty much every place I have ever lived since 1979. Yes, I am an old fart: deal with it. No, it's not related to Sauron in any way, save perhaps as being inspirational to film-makers for major production houses. Possibly. The mechanics of of how films are actually made (and taxes, payments to the Tolkien estate avoided, etc.) entirely escape me.

You may want to visit https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_eclipse_of_February_26,_1979&oldid=761573206

That's the link as of this date: I've been burned by not specifying specifying dates. Pull quote:

Many visitors traveled to the Pacific Northwest to view the eclipse,^[1] since it would be the last chance to view a total solar eclipse in the United States for almost four decades. The next over the United States will be the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.
Although the path of totality passed through Portland, Oregon in early morning, it was not directly observable from the Portland area due to overcast skies.^[2]

That last line matters. In 1979 I was driving up the Columbia Gorge, seeing small holes of blue sky in wide overcast, and trying to judge where said blue holes might line up with the sun, during that brief period of totality. A fast car and a certain disrespect for law and order won the day. Everything lined up, and I skidded to a stop at Horsethief Lake State Park in time to see the whole event.

• Shadow racing through the gorge at a thousand miles per hour
• Weird greenish light, entirely unexpected, before totality
• Shadow bands rippling across the ground.

It was awesome, in the original sense of the word. This is the Pacific NW. I saw Mount St. Helens erupt a year later, so I'm not a stranger to drama.

So here we are, that long 40 years later, as mentioned in the above pull quote. I'm now a certifiable Old Fart who never expected to live this long. But that narrow path of totality will sweep directly over my place  on August 21. In place of vile winter weather,  I have the best weather of the year, and all I have to do, essentially, is walk outside. How cool is that?

Being a complete nerd, I'll go bit further. I'll spread my parachute canopy across the yard below a second-story deck, and hope for a shadow band photo opportunity, etc. But mostly, I just want to experience the event. I lack the words to describe a total solar eclipse. Perhaps that is the true meaning of 'awesome': you just can't really express it.

Of one thing I am certain: on 2017-08-21, this weird little place in small-town Oregon will become The Coolest Place That I Have Ever Lived.