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I traveled through 15 states of the USA to get to totality and back. I saw totality in Illinois, via Georgia!

For me it was a working event. I was "staff astronomer" on a bus. My astronomy events "boss" came up with the plan months ago. He hired a bus down South (originally he thought he might fill three buses but it was a tough thing to advertise). We all met in Kennesaw, Georgia, a northwest suburb of Atlanta. The idea behind the bus was that we could wait until two days before to decide which "third" of totality to target: towards Texas (which the early money was betting on), towards upstate New York (which was looking good at the last minute), or towards southern Illinois, right in the middle. Then on Monday morning we would be able to aim for the section of our chosen third with the best weather that we could find.

The weather looked pretty miserable all up and down the path of totality four days before. Texas had been knocked out four or five days before the eclipse by pessimistic forecasts. Two days in advance even Missouri, Illinois, and then Ohio and western New York dropped off. Driving to Vermont looked like the best option, but that was just too far ...too many hours even for our bus. At the last minute we pulled the trigger on the middle of the path and spent Sunday night in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I checked every weather report Monday morning ten times over. I performed my numerical integrations, calculated the haversine of the angle of incidence, checked my chronometer and barometer... and suggested Marion, Illinois. A big advantage here was an Ohio River crossing way off the beaten path, the "Shawneetown Bridge". No traffic at all inbound...

As we crossed into Illinois we were under a thick, dense layer of miserable grey clouds that looked to be a thousand feet deep, but this was really just a "fog layer" elevated a few hundred feet, and I lied and promised everyone that it would "burn off". As I was praying to the weather gods while we drove further into Illinois, patches began opening in that thick, dense "fog" and it was pure blue through the gaps! Sure enough, it burned off, and the sky was nearly clear. Just a few wisps of high cirrus. In fact, all up and down the path of totality the weather was better than forecast. I probably could have thrown a dart and done as well.

We arrived at our destination, a Walmart in Marion, IL, and everyone on the bus (except me) was shocked to see that the parking lot was very nearly filled with RVs and out-of-state plates and folks setting up telescopes and cameras. It's rare to see a Walmart lot near capacity! The eclipse tourists in our group all looked at me as if to say "really? a dreary parking lot?" and I said, "see that nice, manicured bank lawn?... We are taking it! Prepare the landing craft!!" As it turned out, the bank was closed for the eclipse anyway. It was undefended. We took the beachhead without firing a short. A beautiful lush lawn, shade trees during the hot part (about 78°F before it got darker) and just a great spot. We were there nice and early and saw all of the incoming partial phases. Totality was impressive, of course! Venus and Jupiter came out. I watched through a 7x35 sextant scope with an eyepiece shade during the partial phases. Totality was excellent, and the promise of peak solar cycle paid off. There was a massive pink prominence that will go down in eclipse history. :) And as soon as totality ended, I chased 'em all back on the bus, and we retreated to the interstate. Nonetheless the bus ride back to Atlanta was three hours longer than it should have been. Fortunately I got sleep on the bus, and I was able to hop in my car and start driving back to RI at 2:00am. I had to stop for several long gas-station naps, but it worked. And I got to visit the Space Shuttle Discovery at the Udvar-Hazy Center outside DC. I passed through 15 states in six days.

For celestial navigation fun, I had considered shooting some lunars with Venus and Jupiter, but I was too busy working the event and talking to people in our group. No big deal -- the eclipse was the show! I also brought a small antique spectroscope. I had hoped to see some emission features, but I just didn't have time to get it lined up with everything else going on. Oh well. Maybe in Reykjavik or Mallorca in 2026.

Fellow Connecticut planetarian, Elliot Severn, traveled to Caribou, Maine to watch the eclipse. He's an educator and a professional photographer with expertise in space flight and astrophotography, and he assembled a really excellent "multicam" video that captures both the visuals of the eclipse, and also the feeling of the experience.

For those of you in Connecticut and nearby, I highly recommend the "Discovery Science Center and Planetarium". This is just one mile off the Merritt Parkway on the border between Bridgeport and Fairfield, Connecticut. It's an excellent museum with significant exhibits on the history of Sikorsky Aircraft, and the planetarium is a fantastic, top-notch system. Elliot Severn is the planetarium director and primary presenter there. If you visit, tell him I sent you. :)

Frank Reed

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