Burlington, Vermont
By Al Washburn
It’s eclipse day, April 8th, 2024, and I am at my sister house in Burlington, Vermont with family members. Chris Predom, we find out, is three miles away! So, we invite him to join us for the eclipse. He arrives with Elisa, at 11 am, and sets up two telescopes: A Hydrogen-alpha scope and a Meade refractor with a solar filter. This is the first total solar eclipse for most of us! I have solar glasses, a pair of Celestron 20 X 50 Solar-dedicated binoculars along with pin hole viewers and punch cards to project on the ground. We start by observing a beautiful prominence on the Sun’s edge and sunspots.
At 2:14 pm things begin. There is a flurry of i-phone messages from ASNH members gathered in different locations proclaiming the beginning contact. Shortly after, the air goes radio silent, as we settle in to observing at our various locations. Our group goes back and forth to the scopes, binoculars and pin hole boxes repeatedly as time goes by. As the skies dim, a solar halo forms and we hope it won’t adversely affect our much anticipated totality. Finally, it is quite dark and sweatshirts go on because of the chill in the air.
Seconds before totality a loud, thundering roar of cheers could be heard from the huge crowd of people assembled at the Burlington waterfront a mile away! It was a very impressive noise. And at 3:26 pm there it was. A jet black disc surrounded by a thin corona! I watch for some time, then scan around the edge with regular binoculars and look on to Jupiter and Venus. I try for the comet but give up quickly. We are all amazed at what we see before us! Beautiful sunset skies are to the west, along the horizon, below our eerie blackened Sun. We all look in amazement, for the few minutes we have, to experience this rare phenomenon. A kitchen timer goes off warning us of the end of totality. Chris calls out “diamond ring” and I catch a quick glimpse of it!
Alas, 3:29 pm has arrived and the Sun begins to emerge from behind the Moon. Skies brighten and temperatures rise. We watch the Moon’s edge move across the Sun’s disk with the telescopes and instruments at hand for a while, until it is 4:37 pm when all is as it was before it all began! “When is the next one?” could be heard by all of us there!
By Chris Predom
Upon seeing my first total in 2017 in Vienna, Illinois. I had been planning on my next one. In 2023 there was going to be an annular going along same areas in Texas as the 2024 eclipse. I mapped several hotels, but alas I could not get the time off to go down and evaluate the area for the total while observing that annular (which would have been my second annular).
Going through clouds records, Texas seemed to be the location to travel to. Hotels rates skyrocketed in May 2023 and my wife did not want to drive all the way down there, so we opted for the longshot of Burlington Vermont. It is within a 3-hour drive and has a history of cloud cover during that time of year. A hotel near Shelburne Museum was chosen and booked in May 2023. Now I had to wait a year for the event. The annular eclipse that went through Texas occurred in October 2023 and I watched it on the Weather Channel. Seeing the sky down there really got me thinking about changing my plans. Everything was booked and those that were not wanted $1000 per day, so Burlington was still on. During a club meeting, folks told of the locations they were going. I learned Al Washburn was going to be in same area.
My wife and I traveled up Sunday morning. Our hotel had a nice patio and my room had a balcony where it was possible spot to set up. I texted Al to see if he arrived up there. He said he did. Next morning I was watching news about road closures when I got a text from Al asking where we were staying. We were only 3 miles away from his sister’s home. He wanted to say hello, and I will say I was hesitant because of the road closures and not knowing the area, but Al’s brother-in-law said we would be fine. Al and Jen came down to say hi and extend an invitation to join them. Elisa and I took a quick ride with Al and Jen to his sister’s home, so I could check out area. It was perfect, so an hour later I joined them. I set up my Meade 390 90-mm f11 with a solar filter and my Lunt 50mm h-alpha scopes. We had great views of sunspots in one scope and prominences in the other. We had a nice lunch and then we spent the time waiting for the event to occur, taking turns looking through the scopes.
Upon first contact (which I saw in the Meade), everyone got a chance to look through both scopes as the Moon crept into the Sun. We took photos holding our phones to the eyepieces. Between the telescopes, Al’s solar binoculars and the eclipse glasses we had ever changing experiences. We did have thin clouds, but they did not cause major issues. In fact it was better than what I expected based on the history of that area and month. We all noticed the light was causing the surroundings to look strange as the Moon covered more of the Sun. I did not notice any shadow bands. I was looking in the Meade as the last sliver of the Sun disappeared. I watched sunlight going through the mountain valleys (Baily’s Beads). Now for main event.
When I looked up, Jupiter and Venus were on either side of the Sun. The Sun, itself blotted out by the Moon, showed a beautiful corona. All during this time a loud roar of cheers could be heard from the waterfront of Burlington. I grabbed my camera to take a photo. While looking through camera screen as the camera tried auto-focusing, I saw a red feature. Took two quick pictures. I looked up to see a mesmerizing reddish pink prominence. At that point I took no more pictures. I just watched this event, viewing the horizon then back up to the Sun, watching the prominence get brighter and larger as more of it was being uncovered. Then I saw the second diamond ring (I missed the first while looking through the Meade). Glasses back on and we watched the Moon uncover the Sun.
I took pictures of the event from beginning to end. Some were from phones looking through a telescope eyepiece. Others were from my camera, taken while hand holding a solar filter and the camera.
After the event we had a nice dinner and conversation about what we saw. I am glad that Al and Jen wanted to meet up with us, and with his sister and husband’s invitation to observe from their home, meeting Al’s brother. The weather was spring-like until we lost the sunlight (it cooled down fast) and we were 3 miles more into the eclipse path. It was a very memorable event.
