My son lives in Charleston SC which is near the center line of totality, so my wife and I spent an extended weekend down there. On Sunday we looked at the weather reports, local was going to be cloudy with possible rain but improving an hour or two west, so we planned to hit a location near Columbia, one of two public parks at the shore of a large lake just west of the city.
Monday morning we left the house early and got on I-26. Traffic was light- most of the problem areas were north-south routes with folks clamoring to get close to the west-to-east center line. As we approached our target area we noted several sites were already getting crowded- notably rest areas along the interstate. When we got to our first site around 10am it was already parked up. The second site was worse- folks lined up on the road for a half-mile and cops directing traffic. So we kept moving "freestyle" and looked for a sure-bet plan B site- a large shopping area.
We found it in Lexington, SC at a large plaza anchored by Target. According to my son's calculations we were very close to the line, and would be in totality for well over two minutes. We picked out the shadiest spot at the northern perimeter and furthest from the store. Then we notified the rest of our party, two more carloads, of our location.
This was a better location than the public park since we had access to clean restrooms, a restaurant, a Starbucks, and any shopping that we wanted to do. My wife went to Target and bought four camp chairs and we settled in as the rest of our entourage streamed in.
When the moon started to cross the sun's path it was covered by a large cloud. After about five minutes we got our first glimpse. Then we had a about 20 minutes of nothing but cloud, followed by clear blue for the rest of the event. Damn near perfect.
For those who have never experienced totality, but may have witnessed a partial eclipse, the best analogy is that you "almost died". So you had a near miss but the experience was nothing at all like actually dying.
We witnessed it all: Baily's Beads, Diamond Ring, Shadow Bands, near total darkness and naked eye vieing, temperature drop, 360 sunset along the horizon. It was totally amazing.
Here's a couple pictures that my son shot. The first is totality with no filter (naked eye viewing). The second is coming out Diamond Ring. The third is a blow up showing the solar flares along the just-exposed periphery.
Monday morning we left the house early and got on I-26. Traffic was light- most of the problem areas were north-south routes with folks clamoring to get close to the west-to-east center line. As we approached our target area we noted several sites were already getting crowded- notably rest areas along the interstate. When we got to our first site around 10am it was already parked up. The second site was worse- folks lined up on the road for a half-mile and cops directing traffic. So we kept moving "freestyle" and looked for a sure-bet plan B site- a large shopping area.
We found it in Lexington, SC at a large plaza anchored by Target. According to my son's calculations we were very close to the line, and would be in totality for well over two minutes. We picked out the shadiest spot at the northern perimeter and furthest from the store. Then we notified the rest of our party, two more carloads, of our location.
This was a better location than the public park since we had access to clean restrooms, a restaurant, a Starbucks, and any shopping that we wanted to do. My wife went to Target and bought four camp chairs and we settled in as the rest of our entourage streamed in.
When the moon started to cross the sun's path it was covered by a large cloud. After about five minutes we got our first glimpse. Then we had a about 20 minutes of nothing but cloud, followed by clear blue for the rest of the event. Damn near perfect.
For those who have never experienced totality, but may have witnessed a partial eclipse, the best analogy is that you "almost died". So you had a near miss but the experience was nothing at all like actually dying.
We witnessed it all: Baily's Beads, Diamond Ring, Shadow Bands, near total darkness and naked eye vieing, temperature drop, 360 sunset along the horizon. It was totally amazing.
Here's a couple pictures that my son shot. The first is totality with no filter (naked eye viewing). The second is coming out Diamond Ring. The third is a blow up showing the solar flares along the just-exposed periphery.
