I traveled from Ohio to watch the 2012 annular eclipse in Albuquerque. I remember they had the Hard Rock Casino Pavilion open to the public, and hundreds or thousands of people showed up. They ran out of eclipse glasses, but I'd brought a bunch of spare glasses and gave them to anyone who needed one.
I'd brought my expensive 85mm apochromatic refractor telescope, with a nice solar filter and a solid tripod. Next to me a woman set up a cheap "department store" refractor on a shaky mount that she'd bought just so she and her child could watch the eclipse. I did what I could to help her add weight to the tripod to make it more stable, and I showed her how to point it at the Sun safely. There were plenty of people there with nothing more than the eclipse glasses, too.
That eclipse happened just before sunset, so it was neat to see the Ring of Fire and then stay to watch the stars and Venus appear. Since I was going to Hawaii a couple weeks later to watch the Transit of Venus, it was especially meaningful for me.
I enjoyed the balloon museum and a walk at some nature preserve among the hot, bare rocks, too.
caligirl2287 on October 14th, 2023 at 19:04 UTC »
Perfect capture
DeliberateDendrite on October 14th, 2023 at 19:42 UTC »
thunderintess on October 14th, 2023 at 20:42 UTC »
I traveled from Ohio to watch the 2012 annular eclipse in Albuquerque. I remember they had the Hard Rock Casino Pavilion open to the public, and hundreds or thousands of people showed up. They ran out of eclipse glasses, but I'd brought a bunch of spare glasses and gave them to anyone who needed one.
I'd brought my expensive 85mm apochromatic refractor telescope, with a nice solar filter and a solid tripod. Next to me a woman set up a cheap "department store" refractor on a shaky mount that she'd bought just so she and her child could watch the eclipse. I did what I could to help her add weight to the tripod to make it more stable, and I showed her how to point it at the Sun safely. There were plenty of people there with nothing more than the eclipse glasses, too.
That eclipse happened just before sunset, so it was neat to see the Ring of Fire and then stay to watch the stars and Venus appear. Since I was going to Hawaii a couple weeks later to watch the Transit of Venus, it was especially meaningful for me.
I enjoyed the balloon museum and a walk at some nature preserve among the hot, bare rocks, too.