Coleman Park, Sulphur Springs, Texas 08th April 2024. Total solar Eclipse.
It had been a dream of mine for the last 4 years to travel to America to see the great eclipse on the 8th April 2024. The date, being more special as it is my birthday. Everyone who I’d spoken to who asked of my travel plans heard that I would be going to the USA for this eclipse. The precursor being the hybrid solar eclipse in Exmouth, Western Australia 20th April 2023. That would be my first total solar eclipse to witness and test my photography equipment on. After all the accommodation issues I had leading up to Exmouth I made sure that I would not have the same issues in 2024.
The great American eclipse! Pic: timeanddate.com
However, even with prior knowledge of accommodation selling out very early I had still left my run a bit late when booking accommodation for the USA. Not to mention where was I going to view the eclipse? As like everyone else looking through old cloud forecast maps of the best place to view an eclipse during the month of April would be Mexico or Texas. With so many places to choose from I chose Dallas, Texas. This was inside the 100% totality path but I had plans of traveling closer to the centreline as possible. 10 months before the big day I booked in downtown Dallas, at a slightly inflated rate as most places had in fact already sold out. As the months went by the prices of any available hotel rooms skyrocketed to more than 3 times the normal going rate. And hire cars, I booked mine only 3 weeks before from an alternate place as one place was charging $6000AUD for 4 days car hire! Not to mention around the same time I noticed that I had booked one of my interconnecting flights within the USA on the wrong date. I managed to get this changed very quickly over the phone, however at an additional cost as the airfares had increased due to the demand.
One last detail was to find a suitable spot to view the eclipse from. After scouring through google maps for hours and online forums I had narrowed it down to 2 or 3 locations. The only bit left, was to travel to the USA. After a short visit in California, it was off to Dallas!
I do have to thank the staff at the national weather service and their area forecast discussions. In specific around a week before the eclipse they had a dedicated section to the eclipse forecast. And it was not looking good for Texas. I picked up my hire car the day before and headed down to a town Ennis, around 30 mins southeast of Dallas. It was busy and lots of people also there to see the blue bonnet, a flower that blooms at this time of year. I’d seen a few along the highway but there were many fields dedicated to seeing them, and what a sight it was! This also set off my hay fever!
There were major concerns of traffic chaos along the eclipse path, and with the cloud forecast it sounded like many people exited Texas the night before and headed to Arkansas. I had the offer to meet up with a storm chasing friend there, but the 5-hour drive and night approaching I decided to stay in Texas. The morning of the eclipse was beautiful. Leaving Dallas at 6am I headed an hour northeast to Sulphur Springs. This was my best option where the fog would clear just before the eclipse and watch it from partially obscured skies. Just before arriving at Sulphur Springs the fog rolled in and I was thinking was this the right choice. Arriving at my destination I was amazed to see only a few cars in the car park. However, I had arrived 5 ½ hours before the eclipse would begin. As the hours passed the carpark filled and the suspense increased.
Not long before the start of the eclipse the fog cleared to a partly cloudy sky. The moment the eclipse started the crowed that gathered got excited. The next hour went so slow, however as the sun was slowly covered by the moon the suspense was off tap! Everyone was on a high, eagerly anticipating the total eclipse phase. Over the hour of the partial phases, the temperature dropped somewhat. Not as noticeable as the temperature drop in Exmouth last year.
My camera setup - Manfrotto tripod. Ioptron skyguider pro with ipolar. Canon R5. Canon 2 x extender. Canon 100-400mm lens. Baader Astrosolar Safety Film OD 5.0.
As we entered the final stages, the cloud cover moved in, but still not enough to dampen or obscure our view too much. From the diamond ring to bailey’s beads then through to totality. The crowd erupted, cheering and clapping, followed by wow! This was closely followed by a wave of emotion that swept over everyone witnessing such an amazing sight. I remember one of the young boys asking his dad if he was crying. I was too, tears of joy, the amazement of what mother nature can do!
The 4 minutes 21 seconds went relatively slow, enough time to take some photos and stop to enjoy the 360 degree sunrise/sunset. The majority of the wildlife had gone to bed thinking it was night time, to only be totally confused a few minutes later when the sun reappeared.
The solar prominence’s radiating from the sun were extremely visible to the naked eye and even more spectacular through the lens of my camera. As quickly as it begun it was time to put our eclipse glasses back on and safely view the reappearance of the sun. I was still amazed as soon as totality had finished some people packed up and left, not waiting for the partial phases to finish. The authorities had warned of chaos on the roads, so I was happy to wait around after.
As the sun shone brighter the temperature rose again and the clouds were notably thinner and less convective action occurring. The wildlife also made a return, thinking it was breakfast time again!
Individual photos and sequence composites available
Once again, totally worth the effort traveling across the globe in search of the eclipse.