Angela and I are currently camped out at the Northeast Truck Camping Jamboree in Lake George, New York. We were no where near the eclipse totality on Monday, but the eclipse was predicted to be about 66-percent from our position. It still amazes me that scientists can accurately calculate exactly when and where a solar eclipse will happen – decades into the future.
To be honest, we weren’t really prepared for the eclipse. About an hour before the event, I created an old-school pinhole box projector from online instructions; take a shoe box and cut out the center of one end, tape a layer of aluminum foil over that cut-out, and poke a pin hole in the foil.
Above: Jeannie, Gordon, and Carl looking at the eclipse
Above: The perfectly round holes projected the best eclipse in the pinhole box
The peak eclipse was determined to be at 2:41 pm EST for our location, but we couldn’t wait that long. By about 2:15 pm a group of us were gathered outside our truck campers and trying out our eclipse viewing devices.
Camped next to us, Charlie and Jeannie Coushaine set up their video camera with a very high neutral density filter engaged. Zoomed in we could see the sun and the moon converging on his screen. It was impressive how clear the sun and moon were on his video camera. I’m sure Charlie’s eclipse video will be coming to a YouTube near you.
Above: The eclipse on Charlie’s video camera screen
Carl and Kay Goode also joined us with their own old-school pinhole projectors. They used a folded sheet of paper. The pinhole projectors actually worked pretty well. After a little trial and error, I found the trick was to get a perfectly round hole in the aluminum foil. The rounder the hole, the better the projected image showed the eclipse.
Towards the end of the eclipse, a guy pulled up in a golf cart to where we were gathered with a pair of eclipse glasses. They checked out as ISO-certified so we each took a turn looking at the eclipse for a few seconds.
Through the glasses, the deep orange color of the sun against the moon was absolutely stunning. In retrospect, we should have bought a pair of eclipse glasses and enjoyed this remarkable vision a bit more. We’ll be sure to have them for April 8th, 2024!
This week’s Question of the Week is, “If you saw the eclipse while truck camping, tell us about your eclipse experience.”
Please include where you were camping, why you were there, and what you used to watch the eclipse. Share what the eclipse experience was like for you.
Please fill out the form below to share your eclipse experience.
If you have photographs of you watching the eclipse or of the eclipse itself, please email them to us. We have already seen some fun photos of truck camping folks watching the eclipse and can’t wait to see more!
