In April of 2024, I planned on traveling somewhere in the United States to observe the Total Eclipse of the Sun. Its specific track of totality was straight across our country. After quite a bit of research more than a year in advance (something I had done to a lesser degree for the other five total eclipses I had fortunately successfully observed), I ascertained that I wanted this to be a family event shared with sons Seth and Larry and their families if possible, but also an event attended by good friends including Beth and Gary, Will, Amy and Gillian, the Willman clan originally from Illinois, the Nickel floating-buddy family from Grand Junction, and especially my best friend from high school and his extended family. When I found out that John had rented nearby, I invited his entire clan (three daughters as well as his surviving sister Nancy and her large extended family. I was saddened that Cheryl and Lindsay could not attend. All in all, it was an affair attended by 32 people, and a wonderful and successful get-together.

I finally decided to observe from the Hill Country near Fredericksburg, TX -- and also adjacent the neigh-mythical town/idea/concept of Luckenbach, Texas. So, all in all, all of us eventually made the trek up to an AirBnB residence on seven fully-live-oak-wooded rental (the "Alamo Springs Retreat") dead on the center line of the eclipse. For me, it took two full days to get there from Taos. I stayed a night at a motel in Lubbock, and then onward to the AirBnB. I returned home with old friend Jerry Pfretschner and family, who had rented a place near the town of Fredericksburg. All in all, we had seven peops actually staying at "our" place, with Charlie, Gary Willman, and Zack residing in a short RV on site. Younger son Larry and family arrived on eclipse day. The Nickels and the Dieckmann clan arrived early on Monday the 8th as well. Locally, the eclipse began at 12:15 p.m. and ended at 2:56 p.m. with totality running from 1:32-1:37 p.m. A great time was had by all!

Map of the Texas Hill Country area -- note Fredericksburg's location on the center line -- more than 4 minutes of totality	Orbital Physics of a Total Solar Eclipse

I am in the process of writing a more personal story about the adventure. When done, I'll link it here. It very well might be the Christmas Card for this year -- accompanied by "some" photographs.

To that end, I did not set up a camera attached to any telescope even though I initially planned on that. I had instead just two visual telescopes -- the superb vintage Celestron C-8 and the equally superb vintage C-5, both driven on equatorial mounts. These vintage units are a delight -- I believe (as do all the reviewers) them to be far superior to newer versions.

Meanwhile, Larry DID photograph the eclipse through his Nikon D3500 equipped with a zoom telephoto lens. The photographs and all the details can be accessed as linked here (they are great!) As I noted in the previous 2017 eclipse review, there is certainly great advantage to the newer (for me with solar eclipses) DSLR digital realm. You can immediately see what you get, and quickly adjust accordingly. Also, in post-processing, there is more opportunity to tweak the images to balance the exposures and bring out more detail at totality. This post-processing subject is far more complex than what is presented here; suffice it to say that, although certainly still challenging, the digital approach is easier, more effective and more photographer-controlled than the old film/enlarge/print method.

Photo credits on this page are:

Beth Nelson is bn, Will Grant is wg, I (Willis) am lwg, Gary Willman is gw, Seth Greiner is sg, others as specifically noted.

I always worry about the participants looking at the Sun during the potentially dangerous partial phases, but everyone here did well, especially the youngins. The clouds DID help. And near totality, I decided that I would operate both visual telescopes and also just enjoy the eclipse. Many did look through the telescopes and easily saw the beautiful Corona and obvious Prominences -- the magnificent Prominence near the end of totality was actually visible to the naked eye!

"Final Thoughts"