I saw it, waited around 4 days instead of driving home from ND when my work deployment ended.
Found a spot out in the country near Tryon, NE.
Took tons of pictures……have them on one of my laptops at home.
Once I saw the eclipse had reached totality, I took a look with the naked eye. Can’t describe it, or rather, I lack the words to fully describe not only what I saw, but how I felt seeing it.
According to another man who had set up near me to view it, I was within 9 meters of the exact center of the path. He was here on behalf of some science project out of Germany, said they had observers spread out about every 100 miles or so. He seemed to be the expert, so I had to take his word that I got that close to the center of the path. Couldn’t make him understand or believe that it was pure luck or chance and that I wasn’t there at the behest of some scientific group.
If I were to try to describe the events that took place, especially in the 2-3 minutes leading up to totality, few people would believe them:
Three minutes prior, the farmer’s dogs across the road stopped barking abruptly;
Two minutes prior, the cattle in the field next to me (I was pulled off the side of a farm to market road, the cattle were literally across the fence from me) stopped mooing and laid down/settle down…none remained standing….;
One minute prior and up totality….not even insect noises….as close to total silence as I’ve experienced in such an environment…..
When it was over, I packed up the cameras, tripod, etc, then fought the traffic jam back to North Platte, NE, then 5 or 6 hours later I was home.
And I am already making plans to see the next one in 2024, which will be visible in TX so I don’t have to leave the state to see it.
