Total Eclipse of the Heart

So me and hubby loaded up the van, and drove

to Sweetwater TN to see the eclipse.

It was awesome! We had totality a little over 2 minutes. 

Everyone cheered when the sun was covered. So cool!

Photo doesn't do it justice. There was red aura around the moon, and

it was changing colors. Wish that could have been captured on the photo. 

These were taken with Skip's camera. 

Click on the photos to enlarge. I made a viewfinder that

NASA recommended. Since it was made with cardstock, and 

everyone knows I have plenty of that around! We were sitting on the side

of Walmart along with a ton of other people and there were shopping carts next

to the van. Anyway I put one 12x12 piece of white cardstock on top of the cart. The

other piece of cardstock had a square hole that I cut and was covered with tin

foil and a pin hole in the center of it. Perfect way to view the eclipse safely.

Skip hanging out on the camp chairs waiting for the big event. 

I also made a pinhole camera with a Cheerios box. He

brought along his arc welding glasses so we could look at the event, but

the old school science girl in me wanted to use the pinhole camera. 

Places along the way were offering parking for 20 dollars. I can't beleive

anyone would pay to park when there were plenty of places to park for free. 

As I said there were tons of people in the Walmart parking lot. 

Several people had telescopes. 

Of course traffic was horrendous when we left. 

People were there from all over the states. 

See the speed limit sign? I took it cause in TN there are these vines

that creep up and cover everything. 

But also because of our speed at the time. LOL

It took us almost 3 hours to drive 26 miles on the freeway. 

I would do it again. So worth it to see such a special event. 

I'll be back with more photos of the trip tomorrow. 

Oh after the event on the radio they were playing Total Eclipse of the Heart by

Bonnie Tyler. They also played Bad Moon Rising by CCR. 

Celestial trails

Karen