![\"\"](\"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017-08-19-09.45.55.jpg\")
<\/a>We are going to view the eclipse right smack dab on the “totality line” which means for over two full minutes\u00a0the sun will be completely GONE! That will happen at about 2:36pm on Monday, August 21.<\/p>\n We’ll be camping on a ball field in Andrews where the totality line will pass through the outfield of the park. That is where we’ll be camping and viewing the event. I think the only thing we could do better is to be closer to the place on earth that totality will be the longest but that would only gain us about 2 seconds as seen from this map. That is just how close we are to the place that will have the longest totality experience.<\/p>\n The drive down to NC today was like nothing I’ve experience before. We took a route mostly down I-81 which was gridlock at times on this perfectly clear weather day. Tomorrow I hope to capture some of the maps as Google\/Waze keeps the route updates with the latest traffic flow information. If today is any indication, tomorrow will be a serious travel headache for many who plan on coming down then.\u00a0Monday? Forget it!<\/p>\n This is going to be a continuing document. \u00a0As I write down my experience I’ll upload all of the details as I have access to the Internet. I’m told by many that where Internet was normally available it might not be available on Monday. Or to even make a phone call for that matter. That being the case, I have brought my radio equipment for both entertainment and in case an emergency really does happen I’ll be ready to figure it out. I also plan on doing some science with radio in the coming days.<\/p>\n It’s Sunday, August 20 now. We left Bryson City around 9am this morning and headed on to Andrews, NC where we’ll be setting up our tent for the night so we don’t have to travel tomorrow to the location where we will be viewing the eclipse.<\/p>\n Part of what I did today was volunteer some time to help the science teacher of the middle school in Andrews explain some radio science that NASA provided to the school.\u00a0They did hourly presentations on “radio JOVE” which is what I have been helping\u00a0with.<\/p>\n As I get more information, photos and the like I’ll keep this updated.\u00a0Right now I’ve completely run out of juice and have to got to bed.<\/p>\n Update: It’s 11:45 and we just got home about 30 minutes ago, unpacked and ready for the day tomorrow. We were on the road today for 14-15 hours trying to get back home in gridlocked traffic jams all the way up to DC. That was after going 74 miles in 3-4 hours yesterday right after the eclipse. I don’t have the energy to stay up all night and then work all day tomorrow so I’ll get with my photography tomorrow.<\/p>\n C1 to C2 contacts points:<\/p>\n More to come… I have to get up at 5:30 to go to work tomorrow.<\/p>\n It’s\u00a0August 24, 2017, a little after midnight.\u00a0I’ve been working on some of the time lapse photography today and think I have a sequence going after sorting through 10,000 photos. My computer was acting a bit strange as I worked to sew things together. I’ve finally got a first-cut sequence in the works. It’s taken over an hour so far for my computer to start the process which it’s about 80% through now. I’m going to try to stay up to get to the point of rendering a video and then head on to bed.<\/p>\n I’ve notice that my GoPro camera might be in the process of failing as some of the images didn’t come out perfectly. I think I’ll be able to take some of the images out that didn’t take properly. Some of them were corrected when I cropped the images. When you watch the video you will notice some pink images from time to time. That’s an error in the GoPro camera.<\/p>\n To process the images I use a tool called “LR Timelapse Version 4<\/a>” I’ve used this program for years. The developer,\u00a0Gunther Wegner, has kept this software updated and improved over the years. It works in conjunction with Adobe Lightroom to be able to edit the sequence the way you want. Essentially, Lightroom does the heavy lifting for editing enmasse and outputs to LRTimelapse for the sewing of the video. I don’t know how else you’d do something like this and you certainly could not do it easily by hand. 30 years ago, I don’t know how you’d put this together with a film camera either.<\/p>\n Lightroom has the ability to make massive edits to thousands of files for things like lens correction, which is important for a GoPro camera to correct aspect ratios, image quality, size, shape, color correction and similar settings. For example, I can crop the first image to a 16:9 aspect and have all of the other photographs have the exact same cropping.<\/p>\n 16:9 aspect is very common. It’s the size and shape of most TV screens and computer monitors. Whereas a 1:1 aspect ratio is good for a photo or video posted on Instagram. I don’t know why Instagram likes square stuff, but ok, whatever. They like you to fit your round objects in their square sockets which is one big reason I don’t like using Instagram for stuff like this. Sometimes my stuff is portrait, sometimes landscape. Most often it’s larger then they allow on their servers. Sometimes it’s not worth the trouble to fit my stuff in their format so it doesn’t get posted there.<\/p>\n Facebook will let you post anything you want in the aspect ratio you prefer but what they won’t do is keep the image quality to it’s original for either a photo or a video.<\/p>\n Back on this video. When I finish the first cut I’ll have to work on the final cuts. For that I use Apple Final Cut Pro which allows me to edit video at scale and add anything I want to it like captions, music and\u00a0the like. I haven’t figured out what I want to do in that regard yet.<\/p>\n After the first cuts I’ll have to figure out how annoying the bad images are going to be and\u00a0then go through them one at a time and either edit or remove them. After I do that I’ll have to get a new first cut which will take another 2-3 hours of rendering. As I write this paragraph the process of rendering the first cut for the first time has started.<\/p>\n When this first cut is complete I’ll have to find a place to post it so you can download or view it. That will likely be YouTube because DropBox frowns on that kind of thing and don’t allow embedding like I plan on doing here.<\/p>\n While we wait on that, it’s a good time to mention the Eclipse of 2024. You will need to start planning this event now. Figure out where you want to be in the path of the eclipse. Tilt things in your favor by making sure you are in a place where the weather will cooperate traditionally for you in the area you want to go. For more information on that eclipse you can go to NASA’s web site here<\/a>. We plan on going!<\/p>\n Helen and some of her friends came down to join us from college at Virginia Tech University. They set up their tents next to ours on Sunday night and were able to enjoy the eclipse with us.<\/p>\n While we waited for the eclipse to arrive there was much tale telling under our shade tent. My only regret was not taking more actual video of people talking, especially during the eclipse, and more photos of just the normal happenings around me. Gloria picked up my professional camera and didn’t know the focus is “manually activated” so a lot of the photos she took were blurry. While they help tell the story I am not going to publish them here.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>