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Total Eclipse Experience

I've a lot to catch up on from the last week.  Internet access has been poor so I haven't been able to post - I have however written quite  few but I'm going to stagger posting them and be a little bit out of sync as lots of messages are coming through about the Eclipse so I thought I had better start there!!

we had scoped some good places for viewing - high up with 360 panoramic views and we had a couple of places in mind.  So by 7.30 Monday morning we were up and armed with biscuits and gravy - which incidentally are not nice cold... we headed out to the grasslands of Wyoming.  we stopped at out preferred place and started to make camp so to speak, we were on a wide verge off a gravel road and it was nice spot - if you squinted you could imagine the nearby cows were bison and there were real eagles flying about.  only 2 and half hours to wait.... then.... a large pickup truck drew alongside and wound the window down, Dr Fred moved over
'' you are are on private land get your arses out of here now''
'' oh I'm sorry bu we thought we were ok on the verge''
'' you are trespassing hual your arses out now''
window up , conversation over - rednecks leave in a cloud of dust.... and so we moved onto our next spot where there were a few other people and we were assured it was public land and would be ok but it was a very rude and unpleasant start to the day.

We didn't take long to recover and from there on it was up hill all the way,  the moon started its journey across the sun slowly taking larger bites, the sky growing darker quite considerably, shadows lengthening and it started to feel a bit chilly -


Then in a split second we got the first diamond ring effect and then total coverage.  It was stunning, a most beautiful corona shining around the moon.  We were in a perfect place to benefit from a fantastic 360 horizon view where the landscape was coloured with glorious sunset colours, russets reds, oranges under a shadowy deep grey and blue sky - the most fantastic skyline.  Totality was only 2 minutes 14 seconds but we had time to be completely awed by one of natures most spectacular shows.  As the moon moved away we had another fabulous diamond ring effect and suddenly the smallest slither of sun made looking up with out the eclipse glasses impossible.

all the picturesare taken with my little canon camera so not brill quality but a fab reminder of a wonderful experience  also we are really pushed for time so there are loads of typos and spelling which i'll clear up next time but for now this is Ruby reporting on the 2017 eclipse!!!!!

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