The Trip to Totality – Eclipse

I’ve been working on writing the right blogpost for the finale of the Trip to Totality. It stretched to over 9000 words at one point. A little long for the average blogpost. But I do have an engaging narrative. I thought I’d post an excerpt and post the promised pictures. In the book American Eclipse …

The Trip to Totality – The Pale Blue Dot

"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

Night falls on our 15 hour overnight road trip to see the total solar eclipse. The bright orange clouds tinted with neon reds and yellows fade from gray to black. Memories of driving those same types of highways come back to me. It’s like time crosses back on itself. When I was younger and confused …

The Trip to Totality – Citizen Science

When Maddie asked if she could use my centrifuge for her sixth grade science project I immediately said yes. We’d been brainstorming ideas as I was mixing chocolate powder into milk. She was curious as to how much of the powder dissolved into the milk and what amount of the powder stayed grains in the …

The Trip to Totality – Letter to the School

Dear Mr H******: I am writing to let you know that I will be taking my daughters to see the Great American Eclipse. I realize this is the beginning of the school year, but because of the rarity and magnitude of this celestial event, I feel it’d be okay for them to miss school. Can …

The Trip to Totality – A Luna Eclipse?

Back in 2015 I told the girls we were going to watch a full lunar eclipse. Maddie held up her fluffy white cat Luna. “You mean a Luna eclipse?” “Granted she’s fluffy and white and reflects light, but no.” We loaded up and headed to the desert. I choose a place on wind farm, hoping …

The Trip to Totality – Great American Public Lands

As we planned our trip to Idaho, I pulled up the map and showed the girls the path of The Great American Eclipse across the United States. The shadow on the map made a cross-country swoop from the Pacific in the northwest to the southeast and into the Atlantic Ocean like a pinstripe following the …

The Trip to Totality – A Couple of Test Photos

My youngest texted me: go see the moon. She was on an evening walk with friends and knows I love to see a good moonrise. I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed out the door with my mind on August 21st. This was just after I’d told my daughters we were going to make …

The Trip to Totality – Helpful Websites

Hey Eclipse Fans: I’ve been studying the hell out of maps, photography, and of course eclipse websites and books. First off, I ordered two Full Aperture (Solarlite) filters for each of our zoom lenses from Thousand Oaks Optical. After a bit of searching and a phone call or two, these seemed our best option for …

The Trip to Totality – 43 Days

One day I was driving around in a California oilfield when I heard the writer and astronomer Kelly Beatty on NPR’s Here and Now, talking with Jeremy Hobson, about how stunned and awed he is whenever he sees a solar eclipse. In grade school, I’d seen a partial solar eclipse that looked like some had …