Hovercraft and the end of the sunlight
A "normal" (not VR) photo of the hovercraft and my wife, Kim, standing inside. At this point, the sun was perhaps 10% to 15% obscured as it was the start of the eclipse.
We flew the hovercraft across this local lake for fun and as a different way to see the solar eclipse. We suspect this is the first time in the world anyone took a hovercraft to view a solar eclipse. Update: A 2nd hovercraft was on the lake at Big Summit Prairie in Central Oregon, east of Prineville! However, since we were to the west, we were first :) Barely!
I am certain this was the first time anyone took a VR 360 and a 3D photo of a hovercraft taken to observe a solar eclipse!
Why the yellow light on a pole? The US Coast Guard requires hovercraft to have a flashing amber light that flashes every 1/2 second or 120 times per minute. This is to alert other boaters that we are a hovercraft and have the maneuverability of a jet skier that has been drinking too much. Hah hah. We are not that bad but we cannot turn or slow down nearly as quickly as a conventional power boat.
We only had 99.7% or 99.8% coverage. Anything less than 100%, I have learned, is not the same experience as a 100% total solar eclipse. Sorry we missed totality.
We did not go far from home due to our state's nonsensical forecasts for millions of visitors arriving for the eclipse, which we were told, might cause impassable roads for 3-5 days in advance and 3-5 days afterward, breakdowns in telecommunications, the possible start of major wildfires (due to so many visitors), and people be unable to get food or gas for days. Seriously.
Afterwards, when it was clear we were never close to these worst case scenarios, we learned the Oregon Department of Emergency Management had pulled their forecast number out of a hat. Literally, they made up a number out of thin air and made no attempt to verify their assumptions. As someone who is trained and has done forecasting for employers, ODEM did an appalling bad job with this.
ODEM selected 1 million as a fictitious number for scenario planning. It was not a forecast. The media ran with that, often embellishing as it grew to 1.5 million and later even 1-2 million!
I suspect reality, statewide, might have been closer to 400,000 out of state visitors. Still a lot, of course, but not the Apocalypse!
Many residents stayed home or in their local neighborhoods (like us) to avoid Armageddon. Businesses, especially on the west side of the state, had purchased excess inventory, sometimes perishable items, and staffed up in anticipation of the millions of visitors. Hospitals hired extra staff, set up on site sleeping quarters, flew in out of area air ambulances - and saw no additional patients.
In reality, the Oregon coast was like an ordinary summer weekend. The Willamette Valley did attract more people to Salem and there was a 4 hour traffic jam getting out (mostly north to Portland and Seattle). Eastern OR had a huge traffic mess, as expected by everyone, as perhaps 250,000+ people made their way for the exits on mostly 2-lane highways, with the majority head south to California, or northwest to Portland (many visitors flew in and out via PDX Airport).
This photo was taken with a Nikon 1 J3 and the 1 Nikkor 6.7-13mm wide angle lens.
Hovercraft and the end of the sunlight
A "normal" (not VR) photo of the hovercraft and my wife, Kim, standing inside. At this point, the sun was perhaps 10% to 15% obscured as it was the start of the eclipse.
We flew the hovercraft across this local lake for fun and as a different way to see the solar eclipse. We suspect this is the first time in the world anyone took a hovercraft to view a solar eclipse. Update: A 2nd hovercraft was on the lake at Big Summit Prairie in Central Oregon, east of Prineville! However, since we were to the west, we were first :) Barely!
I am certain this was the first time anyone took a VR 360 and a 3D photo of a hovercraft taken to observe a solar eclipse!
Why the yellow light on a pole? The US Coast Guard requires hovercraft to have a flashing amber light that flashes every 1/2 second or 120 times per minute. This is to alert other boaters that we are a hovercraft and have the maneuverability of a jet skier that has been drinking too much. Hah hah. We are not that bad but we cannot turn or slow down nearly as quickly as a conventional power boat.
We only had 99.7% or 99.8% coverage. Anything less than 100%, I have learned, is not the same experience as a 100% total solar eclipse. Sorry we missed totality.
We did not go far from home due to our state's nonsensical forecasts for millions of visitors arriving for the eclipse, which we were told, might cause impassable roads for 3-5 days in advance and 3-5 days afterward, breakdowns in telecommunications, the possible start of major wildfires (due to so many visitors), and people be unable to get food or gas for days. Seriously.
Afterwards, when it was clear we were never close to these worst case scenarios, we learned the Oregon Department of Emergency Management had pulled their forecast number out of a hat. Literally, they made up a number out of thin air and made no attempt to verify their assumptions. As someone who is trained and has done forecasting for employers, ODEM did an appalling bad job with this.
ODEM selected 1 million as a fictitious number for scenario planning. It was not a forecast. The media ran with that, often embellishing as it grew to 1.5 million and later even 1-2 million!
I suspect reality, statewide, might have been closer to 400,000 out of state visitors. Still a lot, of course, but not the Apocalypse!
Many residents stayed home or in their local neighborhoods (like us) to avoid Armageddon. Businesses, especially on the west side of the state, had purchased excess inventory, sometimes perishable items, and staffed up in anticipation of the millions of visitors. Hospitals hired extra staff, set up on site sleeping quarters, flew in out of area air ambulances - and saw no additional patients.
In reality, the Oregon coast was like an ordinary summer weekend. The Willamette Valley did attract more people to Salem and there was a 4 hour traffic jam getting out (mostly north to Portland and Seattle). Eastern OR had a huge traffic mess, as expected by everyone, as perhaps 250,000+ people made their way for the exits on mostly 2-lane highways, with the majority head south to California, or northwest to Portland (many visitors flew in and out via PDX Airport).
This photo was taken with a Nikon 1 J3 and the 1 Nikkor 6.7-13mm wide angle lens.