This past Monday, I spent the day in Mountain View, AR with one of the members of my Barony and their family to catch the eclipse.
Eclipses are important to historical astronomy because they represent a moment in which we know, without complicated measurement, the position of the moon relative to the sun.
Thus, while watching this eclipse, I made sure to record the times that the moon first became visible on the sun (ingress), the beginning and end of totality, and the last moment the moon appeared visible (egress). The observations were all done with only eclipse glasses, even though I had my telescope1.
These times were as follows:
– Ingress: 12:38pm
– Beginning of totality: 1:52pm
– End of totality: 1:56pm
– Egress: 3:11
Checking the official calculations, these observations look pretty good.
For ingress, I was a few minutes late which is unsurprising. Totality is much easier to tell so these are spot on. For egress, I was a minute early in calling it.