For the special occasion of a total solar eclipse over the US in reasonable driving distance Py skipped this year's Vermont Challenge and the 11th D2R2 for a change heading far South visiting a friend at the foothills of the Smokey Mountains near Knoxville, TN - -just about close to the path of the totality zone. See map of the local area here -- the chosen observation region with a chance to get a little out of the hot humid air at lower altitude -- heading up on the Cherohala Skyway to almost 1600m:
As Py arrived in advance he took the change to go for a ride on this mountain pass on Friday with his bike.... to scout of the area in depth and to pick a good location to set up on Monday morning the 21st of August 2017. The actual observation point picked (dot):
How the day went: a time lapse of the drama and gamble with clouds developing around noon time over the mountain -- Eclipse Total around t=6:40:
Looking "West": From t=15:21 -- watch the "shadow" or sun set like horizon change before the darkness:
And a fast forward of the whole Eclipse -- sorry about the dark and choppy frames, blame the clouds.
Are few results of all the photos taken:
After some HDR image processing of just two selected shots:
More photo's by Py here:
