What's to see, sitting on an island, waiting for a total solar eclipse? Come with me and finish my canoe trip to experience the longest possible total solar eclipse time in Oregon last summer.
We pushed our canoe off at dawn, into Oregon's Willamette River - headed for an island, to camp overnight. That lets us watch how the birds, insects, and other river life experience sunset and sunrise. And we can compare that to what we might see during the total solar eclipse. I would never have guessed all that we would see!
Eclipse Parties on the River
We heard them before we saw them! Zoooom!
That's crazy, flying up and down the river that way!
That's even crazier, flying THAT way!
It's a plane party! The pilots were able to land and take off from that tiny gravel bar!
Other parties were more quiet!
A high-flying airliner made a wide loop, so passengers could see the eclipse better.
This group floated down in kayaks early in the morning.
Some folks were even watching the eclipse from a hot air balloon!
The Eclipse
It begins!
The first signs that the moon was moving in front of the sun, were changes in the shadows. They started getting more sharp - and then they each took on the curve of the moon!
We entertained ourselves endlessly, making ourselves into human pinhole cameras. We could see the moon's shadow without looking at the sun.
I brought along a pie pan with little holes. It worked the best at showing the curve of the moon moving across the face of the sun. Bonus - the pan started our trip with a pie in it, lol.
It's here!
The total eclipse was going to last only 162 seconds! This old magazine article explained how our brains stop processing a single image after about 8 seconds. So to really imprint the eclipse in our memory, we needed to look away -- to look at the unique effects of the eclipse around us -- and then look back at the sun for another 8 seconds. And then look around again, then back at the sun, over and over. And don't waste time taking pictures!
Here's the link to that article in Astronomy magazine. It's worth reading. And here's the other best advice I read about how to watch the eclipse.
And there it is! Totality! Spectacular! Even with all the advice, I still took 1 picture with my phone. That's it in the lower left corner, lol. My sister took 2 quick pictures, right away, to leave time to enjoy the whole eclipe directly. Her picture - the one in the center - turned out great! And she was grateful that she didn't allow herself to be distracted by trying to take the perfect photo or video of the totality.
It's gone!
It takes awhile to come down from the excitement after the totality. It's all we could talk about. We keep watching how the shadows change as the moon overlaps less and less of the sun. We're already planning to see the next total solar eclipse! It's totality will last over 4 minutes!
Eventually the eclipse was totally over. And there was no sign that it had ever happened. It's had to imagine how people in the past must have felt after experiencing a total eclipse, especially if they were out by themselves at the time.
We were surprised how the brightness of the day did not drop at all -- until right at the totality, when the moon completely blocked the sun. During the totality, we saw swallows go out over the river -- hunting for insects, just like at sunrise and sunset. We heard birds, like doves, and insects, like cicadas, calling in the low light, too. The world didn't get totally dark. Instead, it looked like sunset - but in all directions, all 360 degrees around us. And there, up in the sky, a flat black disk, surrounded by incredible rays of light.
Moving On Down The River
What a great discovery! The riverside hop farm and tasting room of Rogue Ales Brewery! I enjoy growing hops myself. So I headed back here the next weekend for the hop harvest! Stay tuned to see that -- a hop farm is an interesting place.
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Our eclipse canoe trip started with a ferry -- and here it ends with an even more unusual way to travel on the water. This doesn't seem very practical. But it sure looks like a lot of fun!
Thanks for Walking - and Canoeing - With Me
I hope you enjoyed this canoe float down the Willamette River to see the total eclipse of the sun!
Counting our own canoe, how many modes of transportation did we see on our eclipse trip? The ferry, small airplanes, large planes way up high, a hot air balloon, kayaks, motorboats, jet skis, motor boats, and whatever that last contraption is. And not a single automobile! That's memorable, even without an eclipse!
The next eclipse over North America will happen on April 8, 2024. Let's hope for clear weather for everyone on that day! If you have any chance at all to go see the totality, do it. A partial eclipse doesn't compare.
- Have you traveled on any of the modes of transportation we saw on our canoe trip?
- Would you ride that last water jet contraption?
- Did you see the solar eclipse in August?
- Do you live anywhere near the next total solar eclipse?
- Did you see the Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday night?
Haphazard Homestead
foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land
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