Total Solar Eclipse Kerrville Texas - Report

Today, April 8, 2024 was the day we planned for... the solar eclipse. At half past four this morning we left San Antonio for Kerrville. The latest weather forecast  were no't good at all and we even had some droplets falling on the way to Kerrville.

We arrived at six o'clock and went straight to the parking lot..... and it closed. So we drove back for a couple of miles to stop at Starbucks for a coffee and muffin! At seven o'clock we drove back to the parking lot and took the shuttle bus to the recreation park "Louse Hays Park" in the middle of the city. 

Everything was ready for the Kerrville Eclipse Festival. The park was still empty when we arrived around a quarter to eight, but it was filling up by eleven o'clock up to 20.000 people. In the meantime, we had already met people from Seattle, Chile, Mexico, etc. Everyone was in a good mood and willing to have a chat. NASA was also present and provided the necessary explanation about the solar eclipse. Astronaut Reid Wiseman gave an interview. He was recently named commander of NASA's Artemis II mission to the moon. 

 Despite the cloudy sky, the sun regularly came through and we could enjoy the natural spectacle. Just as the sun completely disappeared behind the moon, the sky opened slightly, just enough to see the full solar eclipse. It remains an amazing phenomenon: it slowly gets colder and darker until it is as dark as night. As befits a festival, a group also came to sing: Judah and the lion. They played country/folk music and quite a few people stayed around to listen. Despite the clouds, it was still a successful eclipse.

After leaving the park we went back to San Antonio which took us 1 hour longer due to traffic jams.

We found out that a couple a days before the eclipcse,  Kerrville issued disaster declaration. 

First release of Solar Eclipse 2024 in Kerreville Texas

This is a first release of my pictures of the Solar Eclipse april 8,2024 @ Kerreville Texas. Due to high and later low clouds pictures are reworked. I could not make pictures of third and fourth contact due to low clouds. A more detailed report will follow later.

All pictures taken with TLAPO 80/480 f/6 and Nikon D7500 with solarfilter ND3.8 and IR/UV cut filter.

ATT Essen 2024

It was my 6th time I visited the ATT Essen. This time I was a little bit nervous as I went with my new EV. But at the end... no reason to be nervous as at a walking distance 8 charging stations were available. We went with 5 collegues and two cars. It was Johan R's first visit to ATT Essen and he enjoyed it greatly. As a conclusion, ATT Essen (May 4, 2024) was again a great succes with a lot people. Lot's of material, learnings, discussion and of course some good fun! Thx to Walter, Jean-Claude, Johan R and Jean-Marie

Pascal, Walter, Jean-Marie, Johan R & Jean-Claude (from left to right)

Sun Halo

 

Some halo's around the Sun this late afternoon:
- 22° halo

- Sundogs

- Upper tangent

- Circumzenithal arc

- and below the circumzenithal arc touches the supralateral arc

The supraleteral arc is not quit circular and thus I guess it's not the 46° halo.

Millky Way - Study Butte (Texas)

 

Selection of three pictures of the milky way taken in a bortle 1 location in Study Butte (near Big Ben National Park, Texas).
Setting:
Nikon D7500, f/3.5, 10mm, ISO1600, 60s exposure time
Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i on Manfrotto Tripod
Editing unsing CS4

Milky Way - Study Butte Texas

 

Image of Milky Way taken in Study Butte near Big Bend National Park (Texas).
Setting :

Nikon D7500 f/3.5 10mm ISO1600,  60s

Star Adventurer 2i on Manfrotto tripod

Editing : CS4

Visiting LIGO (Livingston)

The plan to visit LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) @Livingston started back in August 2023. At that time it was decided to both visit the states Texas and Louisiana in view of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. I made contact with the LIGO center and after a couple of emails it was confirmed we could visit the center on friday april 19, 2024 at 2pm.

 

A great welcome by Mishael Sedas, a PhD who leads the Science Center as Evaluator & Educator. He explained the history of the site and provided details on the LIGO instrument. As we were the only visitors on site, Mishael took the time to answer all of our questions and we got a detailed plant tour. He was impressed that we also visited Virgo in Cascina (see link to my blogpost); beside some scientists he could not recall anybody who visited two gravitational detectors. 

A great thx to the Livingston team and Mishael for getting into LIGO.

Each arm of the detector is 4km long.

We visited the control center of the detector which was operational. As from April 10, 2024 they are in operational run 04b.

Selfie with Mishael Sedas

Of course... the Nobel Prize for the detection of gravitational waves. 

Th"mirmor" is reflective for the IR laserbeams, but transparant for visual light. 

The "old" mirror; the design is different then the one we saw at Virgo.