After the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 — during which I experienced 2 whole minutes of totality (the moon totally blocking the sun)— I was certain that I was going to try to see the next one in 2024!
Unfortunately, this time, I would have to drive several states away to see it. The next total Solar Eclipse would occur on April 8th 2024. So in the Fall of 2023, Rose and I both scheduled time off from work on the days surrounding the Eclipse.
A few months before the big event, I planned an approximate destination: western Tennessee or eastern Arkansas. But I anticipated needing to adjust my plans based on weather reports and predicted cloud cover. Because of this, we could not book lodging in advance. So we decided we would plan to camp to maximize our flexibility regarding locations.
As the date grew closer, I narrowed down the list of gear I wanted to bring. This time, instead of the hassle of changing lenses and filters during the fleeting moments of totality, I would use two DSLR cameras and tripods. One I would set up with a medium zoom lens (my Tamron 70-300mm) and a 20-stop ND filter, for shooting during the partial eclipse before and after totality. The other one I planned to set up with my best zoom lens (Opteka 500mm) for capturing Totality and hopefully some Baily's Beads and solar prominences. And like last time, I wanted to shoot general video of location, and what was going on around me.
The day before the Big Day, we hit the road. Already I knew that my initial destination would likely get rain the day of the eclipse, so I planned to adjust the course a little further north, toward Missouri, after we passed Nashville. But as we got closer, the storm system threatened that area as well. So further North we go! Aided by the NASA map of totality, I picked the general area of Carbondale, IL. We got close and camped that night
The next morning we awoke to very dense fog. Here's a view of the road we needed to take.
Needless to say, we decided to stay put for a bit, and wait for the fog to lift, before moving on to our final destination: Giant City State Park, Makanda, IL.
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