a day to rest

"We are not things."

8:32 AM MDT, Sunday 20 August 2017. Read my e-books for a while.

Over coffee, Chris and Ian shared they had an interesting evening with a significant dash of public outreach to Eric's friends and family. They were able to squeeze in a couple of interesting objects for themselves. It left them hungry for some challenge objects. I added some Arps to my ST3P observing list.

10:24 AM. I was watching the clock. It was 24 hours to go. T-24 to first contact.

Chris and I chatted about the MallinCam system. I reminded him of the rig we have. He expressed some interest in trying it.

People wanted shirts. Me too. We jumped in 2 cars and descended to the park proper. Visited the WYO Glendo park booth. They had nice t-shirts at fair prices. I picked up one for myself and one for rho. I noticed they had fridge magnets and key tags too. Laser cut wood. They were giving out solar glasses.

Ian, Dan, and others wanted to go back; Katrina, Chris, and I headed to town. It was a bit busy...

I noted the time. It was T-minus 24 hours plus 30 minutes to totality.

The Post Office was not open. Wanted to get some stamps. We did some wardriving but couldn't find library. We went to store aka trading post for some supplies.

12:03. I messaged rho and downloaded emails.

The "eclipse" ATM machines looked dodgy...

Katrina went to BBQ and Chris went to shack. We checked out shirts and hats at the tent. Chris put pins in the map for Toronto, Richmond Hill, and the Blue Mountains. I went for the "eclipse burger" from a vendor at the park. Nothing special about it. Chris suggested a pattie on a fried egg would have been visually fun. The food concession people thought I worked for NASA given my t-shirt. I told the truth...

Bumped into Jim on the way back. Fun meeting a fellow RASCal.

Back at the house, I opined that 24 hours from now we'd be crying or laughing.

We gave Eric our gifts. He was very modest.

2:01. We were chillin' in the shade. I said, "I love this temperature."

Tony facilitated a repair in the garage for Eric.

We heard that Sara and Charles and the boys were going head here tonight...

Ian said he was looking for the SA counterweight. I located it in the SA box.

We spotted clouds in the distance. Some thought we might experience an afternoon thunderstorm... Tomorrow's weather looked very good. "Yeah... feels like hope."

The Seager-Darrow clan arrived! woo hoo! They moved into Canada house as there was some additional space.

I tested my camera set-up using a spreadsheet, and Dan's help, working backwards, to figure out the imaging start time. 10:21:13.

Enjoyed a light dinner.

As the sky darkened, I helped Marty with some northern constellations.

On the front lawn, I helped with outreach. We had to do some cloud busting but we did show off Saturn.

Ian corrected me when I said that the Ring Nebula was an exploded star. He was right. It's an old star that has cast off material.

I chatted for some time with a local teacher about increasing interest in astronomy and science. I suggested a couple of things like reaching out to the local astronomy club for star parties. I also said that starting an astronomy club within the school might be a lot of fun.

Eric had received some kegs of New Belgium beer. Had some Fat Tire and and then Blue Paddle with Chris.

12:10 AM MDT, Monday 21 August 2017. Helped pack up.