by Ira Polans

My wife and I had long planned to travel to outside of Waco Texas to see the April 8 eclipse. But as the eclipse drew near, the weather in Texas, didn’t seem to be matching long-reange predictions. When taking another look at the expected weather along the path of totality I decided that Maine might be a good place to go. Fortunately, I have some family there, plus I was able to find an Airbnb very near the path. After cancelling our long-held reservations. The trip was rebooked. We ended up staying the night of April 6 in Scarborough, ME, then spent the nights of April 7 & 8 in Waterville, ME. On the day of the eclipse, my brother, my wife, and drove towards Jackman, ME. From the perspective of being in the path of totality, we went from around 90% in NJ, to 95% in Scarborough, to 99% in Waterville, to 3:08 minutes of totality on the way to Jackman. Driving up to Jackman was uneventful. My brother who was driving kept mentioning, that the further North we went the fewer cars there were. When we finally got close to Jackman (20+ miles) we pulled over into a pull-over (where others had stopped). The sky was crystal clear and waited for the event to begin.

Since we were planning to go to Texas to view the eclipse, I had purchased the Celeston EclipSmart 50mm telescope. What attracted it to me was the fact that it conveniently fits under the seat in front of you (including the tripod)! The one upgrade I made was getting the equivalent of a slow-motion control for the telescope. This provides easier adjustment and makes using a Barlow much easier. Since this was my wife’s first Solar eclipse I also brought a pair of EclipSmart 10 x 42 binoculars along.

I’ve included a couple of photos that I took with my Panasonic point and shoot camera. Plus, a couple of photo taken with my cell phone (using the appropriate filter).