[ADXA] The Eclipse

Mon Apr 8 17:47:47 EDT 2024

Outstanding here.  I had some company that waited until the last minute to
decide to drive in from near Springfield, MO this morning.  We were not
disappointed.  My backyard was a perfect viewing location.  We went out to
lunch about 11:45 and had almost no traffic.  Seems everybody was already
in place.  The restaurant was very busy, but cleared out by 1:00 when we
left.  The 1st grader was "amazed" by what he saw, even though he didn't
really understand it.  We told him to be ready in 25 years for it to happen
again.  The little girl (Pre-K) was too busy running around, but she did
look up a couple of times with her glasses on.  She thought the glasses
were neat.

The one thing I did notice was that the local airport was a very busy place
starting about 9am, and even more so as soon as the event was over.
Single, twin engine and several jets and a couple of helicopters departed
as soon as they could to get home and back to work tomorrow.  After about
an hour, the number of planes dropped back considerably.

The repeater was not all that busy, a few visitors availed themselves of
it.  And since I had company to entertain, I was not able to do any band
checking as Totality approached as I had hoped.

I'm capturing the video from the Depot railcams now even though they don't
show the eclipse itself.  The microphones picked up the excitement from
those folks downtown enjoying all the activities all weekend.

I took a bunch of pictures with my Nikon and ND10000 solar filter.  Did not
set up the tripod out of fear the little girl, with all her running around,
would snag a leg bringing it and my camera down to the sidewalk.  In just
looking at the LCD screen, I think I got some really good shots.  A little
post for centering and such will make them look a lot better.

Bottom line, the 30k they were expecting was a bit high, but I think the
final count will be well in excess of 15k since all parks were full and
turning late arrivals away.  Motels were mostly full.  Restaurants probably
did not have the numbers they were hoping for.   I-40 East of Russellville
to Little Rock and West to Ft Smith was not quite bumper to bumper, but it
was slow going.

73's
George - WB5JJJ
HoIP - 100105

On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 4:23 PM Mark Sutherland - K5DXR via ADXA <
adxa at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> My brother and I drove from Siloam Springs to Ola. The clouds stayed away
> and totality was spectacular. Well worth the drive.
>
> Mark/K5DXR
>
> Sent from Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> for iOS
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 3:30 PM, Lanny Aldrich <k1lec at hotmail.com
> <On+Mon,+Apr+8,+2024+at+3:30+PM,+Lanny+Aldrich+%3C%3Ca+href=>> wrote:
>
> The Eclipse was a disappointment.  It got darker, the street lights came
> on and the temperature went down, but there was no total darkness.  GiGi
> was out in the back yard with me and went back to the mat at the back door
> sensing something was different!  With the glasses I could see a white
> crescent as the moon was about to cover the sun and a red crescent as it
> departed.  2017 in Cary, NC was about the same.
> 73, Lanny  K1LEC in Searcy
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on
> behalf of w5znjoel at gmail.com <w5znjoel at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, April 8, 2024 3:27 PM
> *To:* adxa at mailman.qth.net <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
> *Subject:* [ADXA] The Eclipse
>
>
> For the record, my issue is with the gov’t overhype and hysteria over an
> impending emergency management disaster, not with the eclipse!
>
>
>
> Kim and I, along with our daughter, son-in-law, and youngest
> granddaughter, viewed the eclipse from our pool deck. Leading up to
> totality things were nice and routine. The real issue I experienced during
> totality was trying to fly my drone and grab motion video, still video from
> another camera, and still photographs. I needed a third hand, maybe four!!!
> The drone footage is neat as well as the still photographs but I forgot to
> take the filter off the video camera during totality, thus the video is not
> good during that time but very neat leading up to and after.
>
>
>
> A nice still photograph is attached during totality without a filter on
> the still camera!
>
>
>
> I hope everyone was able to ignore the drama and enjoy a nice, peaceful
> event.
>
>
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
>
>
>
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