Nebraska – Geeky Girl Engineer

Toadstool Geological Park

Posted on August 23, 2017 by geek

After the amazing event that was the total solar eclipse, I headed north to continue my trip. I stopped at Toadstool Geological Park along the way. The area is small badlands landscape with several formations said to resemble toadstools. It is a nice area to go do a little hiking, but it should be noted that to get there requires a long drive down a dirt road, which is not so nice.

Toadstool Geologic Park

Solar Eclipse

Posted on August 22, 2017 by geek

The solar eclipse is the main reason I came out west for vacation. I have seen a partial solar eclipse before, but never a total solar eclipse. It was like nothing I have ever experienced. Shortly before totality, the Sun got less glaring, and the temperature cooled a little. About ten minutes before totality, it seemed the entire world went sepia. I don’t think I can properly describe it really. Totality was just amazing. It was night and day at the same time.

Edited to add: I viewed the solar eclipse at Scottsbluff National Monument. I really wanted some landscape photos with the beautiful topography of Scottsbluff. Unfortunately, because of the position of the Sun during the eclipse, I could only get a landscape photos, shot in portrait. However, I still got a few only not with some of the really pretty cliffs.

Below are some of my photos, and then at the end is a video slideshow of my photos. For the photography types, all the zoomed in photos of the Sun were taken with my Canon 6D Mark II with my Cannon EF 70-300mm zoom lens, zoomed in to 300 mm with a Formatt 67mm Firecrest Neutral Density 5.4 Solar Eclipse Filter. All landscape shots were taken with my Canon 6D with my Canon EF 24-105 mm lens. I had a timer on the camera for the zoomed in photos to take a photo every minute. I had to readjust the tripod the camera was on about every 5 shots due to the Sun moving. Hence, I ended up missing a few shots when the Sun moved out of focusing area before I could adjust the tripod.

The photo below shows the Moon just starting to obscure the Sun, but more importantly, those are not flaws on the photo. Those are sun spots.

Solar eclipse starting with sun spots visible

During totality, I had to quickly get the solar filter off. I then got a few photos right as the Sun reemerged before I got the solar filter back on.

Totality

Totality. I’ve played with the exposure and highlights a bit to show the density of the corona.

The diamond ring

Diamond ring. Sun is reemerging.

Also, a few landscape photos.

Scottbluff shortly before totality

I think this is either seconds before totality or just at totality.

Totality

Finally a video slideshow of all the zoomed in photos.

Scottsbluff National Monument

Posted on August 21, 2017 by geek

I went to Scottsbluff National Monument yesterday mostly to do reconnaissance for the eclipse. That was were I wanted to view the eclipse, so I wanted to check out the area and find out details of parking and opening and such. The area is beautiful. I always though of Nebraska as flat plains, but the western side at least is not. The topography of Scottsbluff is lovely, interesting, and definitely not a flat plain. I did end up viewing the eclipse at there, so a few of the below photos are from yesterday and a few from today. The last one is right before totality.