Arriving at 4:30 in the morning at the foot of an extinct volcano in central Idaho, a family farm had been getting ready for eclipse viewers for months. A major tributary of the Snake River lay just beyond the fenced field where we pulled in for the best hospitality imaginable: breakfast and lunch with barbeque, eclipse glasses, and sodas delivered using all-terrain vehicles on the rolling grass.
Then, the spectacle of a lifetime, possibly the most beautiful event that can be witnessed in its purity and form.
For over two minutes, the breathtaking impossible silver of the rarest of pendants was hanging in the sky, giving us pause now to thank photography.
An eclipse all the more rare because of its timing around midday, the sun is high in the sky and draping the horizon in light bent to greens and oranges, as if it were sunset.
Barbara Swanson (left) and a team led by a professional astronomer ready their systems, including an eclipse clock for measuring the exact moments of first and last contacts. The person in the lawn chair at the fence is seated on the exact center of the path of totality.
An effect difficult to capture even for professional photographers, the diamond ring occurred at the exact moment predicted by the eclipse clock.
The collected images of the eclipse as it developed and ended. Both diamond ring effects were captured.
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