Journey to the center of Maine...

Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2024, 12:19 AM - Edit history (1)

Or a day in the life of 2naSalit.

Somebody Say Something About An Eclipse?

Like a moth to a flame, I traveled to the wonderful state of Maine to see the total eclipse... place of my childhood and birthplace to all of my younger siblings. I missed the last total eclipse, was in the 90% zone in 2017, but I heard about an effect of light, that many described during the event, on live broadcasts.

They called it the "snake effect" and many studies were conducted with regard to it this time. That's what I wanted to see, though I did not know what caused it. So I made plans about a month ahead of time and notified a fellow DUer that I was going to be in their area, three cheers to OAITW.r.2.0 who ended up being my knight in shining armor and rescued me from a potential disaster!

Note to those who "get" astrology: beware of taking vacations while Mercury is retrograde between a pair of eclipses even if you make plans ahead of all that.

So I was doing fine with my travel plans all the way up until the first plane landed at a reputable airport on the eastern seaboard, I've been there before, long story, not a pleasant experience. And there I was again, decades later, only to find that the place had grown exponentially and not in a good way, especially for an aging individual. Arrived with plenty of time to make my connecting flight north only to get to the departure gate, a few miles away from where I arrived, to find my flight was canceled due to the snowstorm that I just saw a few days ago in Montana. I simply got in front of it to really enjoy its full affect, one more time, from above, inside and underneath.

I know how to have a good time!

27 hours later I was on my way to Maine where a rental car and a nice B&B room awaited ...or so I thought. Due to everyone charging my card for all my lodging etc. on the same day, I was not able to rent a car. As it turned out, my two contacts were sympathetic and made sure my visit was as good as I had hoped. Both told me to forget the car and they took care of my transportation needs. The innkeeper came to the airport and not only rescued me but put me in the nicest room for the first few nights since I was the only one there until a couple days prior to the eclipse, then I spent the rest of my stay in the smaller room I actually rented.

But it was Skippa's dad who was my chauffeur, concierge and companion for the majority of my stay... and Skippa, of course!

The weather was gloomy until the day before the event and just like it did back home, it got sunny and warm. Folks in Maine who came for the eclipse were in for a treat. On Monday, the big day, there was not a cloud in the sky and it was warm!

Skippa, his dad and me all set out to travel to the best place to see this phenomena which was Greenville, at the southern tip of Moosehead Lake. Nice little town, it was packed but everybody was nice and happy. It's not like that around the western national parks. There was no aggressive driving! At all! imagine that.

Anyway, I promised Skippa's dad that I would post a bunch of pictures here on DU. Due to a few factors of lighting and time, I chose to use the video option on my mediocre camera which did okay for what I demanded of it. The majority of the following photos are stills taken from the video with cropping and contrast slightly enhanced as the only treatment.

Part 1. Before

Crowd at Greenville, Maine




More at the dry dock of the Katahdin



As it grew darker the wind picked up. We were on a jetty so we had lake ice around us and as the wind picked up there were visible heatwaves rising from the ice covered lake. Granted it was in the +50s prior to the event.



Everything with a hole in it became a pinhole camera, like the fencepost on the jetty



The "Snake Effect", as I was informed, is from the last tidbits of direct sunlight as the jagged contours of the moon's surface block out the last of the direct sunlight hitting the atmosphere and refracting to create a remarkable effect on the ground for a few seconds at the beginning and end of totality. Made sense to me.

It's subtle and hard to describe but it is a light effect that I had never seen before. Another challenge was capturing it on video. It's seems like a combination of strobing ripples of light and shadow, shimmering and vibrating rapidly away from you. I watched it across the lake ice, definitely saw it but not sure if anyone else can see it. It wasn't clear in the video either so I'll only post a couple for examples.





Then Darkness!



Part 2 https://www.democraticunderground.com/1036130377

Part 3 https://www.democraticunderground.com/1036130380