Travel – Page 15 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Solar Eclipse

Posted on August 22, 2017 by geek

The solar eclipse is the main reason I came out west for vacation. I have seen a partial solar eclipse before, but never a total solar eclipse. It was like nothing I have ever experienced. Shortly before totality, the Sun got less glaring, and the temperature cooled a little. About ten minutes before totality, it seemed the entire world went sepia. I don’t think I can properly describe it really. Totality was just amazing. It was night and day at the same time.

Edited to add: I viewed the solar eclipse at Scottsbluff National Monument. I really wanted some landscape photos with the beautiful topography of Scottsbluff. Unfortunately, because of the position of the Sun during the eclipse, I could only get a landscape photos, shot in portrait. However, I still got a few only not with some of the really pretty cliffs.

Below are some of my photos, and then at the end is a video slideshow of my photos. For the photography types, all the zoomed in photos of the Sun were taken with my Canon 6D Mark II with my Cannon EF 70-300mm zoom lens, zoomed in to 300 mm with a Formatt 67mm Firecrest Neutral Density 5.4 Solar Eclipse Filter. All landscape shots were taken with my Canon 6D with my Canon EF 24-105 mm lens. I had a timer on the camera for the zoomed in photos to take a photo every minute. I had to readjust the tripod the camera was on about every 5 shots due to the Sun moving. Hence, I ended up missing a few shots when the Sun moved out of focusing area before I could adjust the tripod.

The photo below shows the Moon just starting to obscure the Sun, but more importantly, those are not flaws on the photo. Those are sun spots.

Solar eclipse starting with sun spots visible

During totality, I had to quickly get the solar filter off. I then got a few photos right as the Sun reemerged before I got the solar filter back on.

Totality

Totality. I’ve played with the exposure and highlights a bit to show the density of the corona.

The diamond ring

Diamond ring. Sun is reemerging.

Also, a few landscape photos.

Scottbluff shortly before totality

I think this is either seconds before totality or just at totality.

Totality

Finally a video slideshow of all the zoomed in photos.

Scottsbluff National Monument

Posted on August 21, 2017 by geek

I went to Scottsbluff National Monument yesterday mostly to do reconnaissance for the eclipse. That was were I wanted to view the eclipse, so I wanted to check out the area and find out details of parking and opening and such. The area is beautiful. I always though of Nebraska as flat plains, but the western side at least is not. The topography of Scottsbluff is lovely, interesting, and definitely not a flat plain. I did end up viewing the eclipse at there, so a few of the below photos are from yesterday and a few from today. The last one is right before totality.

Cheyenne

Posted on August 21, 2017 by geek

I spent the night in Colorado, and then it was time to head off to Nebraska to prepare for the eclipse. I stopped in Cheyenne along the way. My initial intention was to walk around a little and see the Cheyenne Depot because I love trains. They also just happened to have an arts festival going on right when so many people were traveling through for the eclipse. Kudos to Cheyenne for timing their arts festival with a day of so much traffic. In any event, Cheyenne is a cute town with many old buildings that are neat to see.

I took a photo of this building, not because it is old because it clearly is not. However I was really impressed with how they made one big parking garage look like several buildings that would fit the architecture of downtown.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Posted on August 21, 2017 by geek

I arrived in Denver by train and immediately got hit with altitude issues. I don’t get altitude sickness exactly, but I do get winded when I have no time to adjust. Along my way north, I stopped at Rocky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, because it was even higher, I could not do any hiking as I was just getting hit too hard by the altitude. Instead, I spent an enjoyable afternoon driving around and looking from the outlooks. One part of the park that I thought was special was how evident the tree line was. As the road approaches the highest part of the park, there are signs noting that you are entering an alpine environment, which is a sensitive ecosystem. The views are lovely.

California Zephyr

Posted on August 20, 2017 by geek

I’m traveling to the west, and I decided to take the train. I took the California Zephyr from Chicago to Denver. I have heard if you take this train past Denver through the Rocky Mountains, it is one of the most beautiful train rides in the US. However that is a ride for another day. There is something very relaxing about taking the train and just staring out at the countryside. A few photos of the view are below. Not my greatest photos, but you try taking good photos through the dirty window of a fast moving train.

Somewhere in Illinois

Somewhere in Illinois: I think that is soy crops, but I was amused by corn that was popping up in the soy field.

Somewhere in Illinois

Traveling over the mighty Mississippi

Somewhere in Colorado

Chicago Architecture River Cruise

Posted on August 20, 2017 by geek

I’m traveling to the west for the solar eclipse and vacation, and I decided to take the train. I had to change trains in Chicago, so I decided to spend the night and have some time to explore Chicago. I decided to start with a river cruise focusing on the architecture. Like most old and big cities, Chicago has a lovely mix of old and new buildings. It has classic old stone buildings, modern buildings (as in the modern architecture era), post-modern buildings, and whatever era we are in now. I am also curious about the engineering that must have gone into many of the buildings as they were built right on the river’s banks. A cruise on its rivers is a great way to see some of them. A few photos I took are below.

Potomac Eagle

Posted on July 3, 2017 by geek

About a month ago, I went for a ride on the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad. The train follows a gorgeous path through the West Virginia country side, the highlight of which is through a gorge of the South Branch of the Potomac River known as the Trough. The train is called the Potomac Eagle because you are almost guaranteed to see bald eagles while in the Trough. I think we saw almost ten. I got photographs of about five. Truthfully even if I hadn’t seen the eagles, the scenery was worth the trip.

West Virginia countryside

Farmland

Entering the Trough

The Trough

Bald eagles

Bald eagle and its nest

St. Michaels, Maryland

Posted on May 27, 2017 by geek

Last week I went to historic St. Michaels, where I walked around town and also visited the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. St. Michaels is a cute little town with many shops selling interesting items, especially items with a crab theme. The museum is nice and informative. It focuses on the Chesapeake Bay’s history, economy, and people. I also got a chance to cruise aboard the Schooner Sultana. The Sultana is a reproduction of a merchant vessel that served in the British Royal Navy from 1768 to 1772.

Downtown St. Michaels

Christ Church

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

The lighthouse at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

View of the Miles River while aboard the Sultana

The Schooner Sultana sailing on the Miles River

View of the Schooner Sultana sails

Duquesne Incline

Posted on May 20, 2017 by geek

This is the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh. It is considered part of the public transportation system of Pittsburgh.
It is also a wonderful place to view Pittsburgh, especially downtown, and many of its bridges. If you are ever in Pittsburgh, go there. The ride is fun, and the view from the viewing platform at the top is amazing. As a side note, Pittsburgh has a lot of bridges, and they are all lovely.

PPG Place

Posted on May 19, 2017 by geek

It is probably a photographer thing, but sometimes I see something, and I just have to take a thousand photographs of it to capture how interesting it is or the cool way it looks. This is particularly true when I see really interesting architecture with interesting lines or reflections or curves or whatever. The Comcast Center in Philadelphia was one such building because of the way it almost disappeared into the sky. PPG Place in Pittsburgh is another such piece of architecture. It is not so much the shape of the buildings, but it is the way they reflect the buildings around them that I find so interesting. I love reflections. I love photographing reflections. I also love how somewhat similar to Comcast Center, it almost blends into the sky by reflecting the blue. So while in Pittsburgh, I took a huge number of photographs of PPG Place because I was just so intrigued and captivated by the way it reflected its surroundings.