Eclipse chasing – Plan A

We have a reservation for primitive camping in a cow pasture at a ranch near Tryon, Nebraska. We arrived Thursday afternoon, well before the total eclipse of the sun on Monday, Aug 21. Tryon is right on the center-line for totality. We spent the afternoon testing the camera, telescope, and drone. David is a member of the Eclipse Megamovie project that plans to assemble hundreds of still images of the eclipse as it crosses the US over a 1.5 hour period into a movie for use in solar research.

Our hosts, Kathy and Todd, are amazing people. They are hard working people who have raised a family of nine, two still at home. Todd teaches STEM subjects at a high school 30 miles away while Kathy takes care of the household and extended family. Todd had invited people with RVs to come to Tryon to see the eclipse just because he thought it would be fun.

As we woke Friday morning, the forecast for Tryon for 1 pm Monday, the local time for the eclipse, was 80% chance of cloud cover. Not good, so we are moving to plan B. All of Nebraska has cloud cover predictions of over 50% so we are heading to Casper, Wyoming where predictions are below 30%. We did very much enjoy seeing the Sandhills region of Nebraska.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)