2017 Total Solar Eclipse Video

Mitchell, Oregon

The complete eclipse sequence with the camera lens and exposure settings held constant.

Holly and I were lucky enough to witness the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 from Mitchell, Oregon.

My brother and physicist/astronomer, David Erskine smuggled us into the campground area booked by the Eastbay Astronomical Society, and we shared the eclipse experience with the society members on a clearing above the town. Many thanks to the EAS for all the planning that made the experience possible, and for the super friendly and helpful members. David was also the one who got us into the 200-inch Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory so that we could shoot pool in the basement on the 19th-century pool table we imagined Edwin Hubble cracking a few racks upon. Needless to say he’s a great brother to have around.

David and the Palomar Telescope also appear in our sci-fi comedy movie, The Emissary. Additionally, the awesome sound of the telescope re-positioning forms the body of the sound effect of the spaceship portal opening after the ship lands in Newport State Park. We found out later that the same sound formed one of the ambient sounds of the interior of the Death Star in Star Wars. We might have missed that sound without Holly making me record it on the crap camera microphone since we were there and that was all we had available––it worked!

This was my first total eclipse and I hope not my last because it is simply one of the most awesome things a person can see. For the first time in your life, you can look in the direction of the sun and see for yourself that it sits among the other trillions of stars––We sit among the trillions of stars. It is unspeakably beautiful––for a while afterwards I was unable to speak. You are aware of the motion of the moon through space because of the movement of the shadow; you see Venus and a few bright stars in the dark blue sky; the air grows cold in the absence of the sun; the gossamer tendrils of fire of the corona are something out of a dream.

This video is something I had always wanted to see but could never find––what is it like to see a total eclipse, exactly? Other recordings make dynamic adjustments to the camera exposure settings so that the variation from light to dark and back is obfuscated, and I could never picture what the light change must be like. Hopefully, you will be able to more imagine what it is like from watching this video. While you might prepare for the sight, you can cannot prepare for the emotions invoked thereof, so I hope you will make every attempt to see the next eclipse with your own eyes.

A few things to watch for: notice the streetlight come on in the background. if you watch in HD on a decent monitor, you can see at least three stars. Out-of-frame was Venus to the upper right, much brighter than the stars. At about 3:15, a charming young couple we met spontaneously hug each other at about the same time Holly and I are hugging each other. At about 3:35 after the initial jubilance, everyone gets quiet, because of the irrepressible nowness of experiencing this wonder and what it means to be together on this planet sweeping through the stars. The shadow of the moon is traveling over the Earth’s surface at around 4,000 mph––watch it move off to the lower-left of the screen and darken the horizon.

––Tim Erskine, Director