What a great experience it was to see the Totality of the Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024 in Van Buren, Missouri.
Wow! That was everyone's reaction, including myself, around us on April 8, 2024. It was an Awww experience. And to think, I almost didn't go see it. I really didn't start thinking about traveling to see it until about a month and half before. We had a lot going on. Where I am in Ozark, Missouri, we were an hour away from Totality Zone. I knew it was just a short drive, but I considered just watching it at home with 97%. After doing some research on it, I decided I needed to go and experience it as I probably won't get another chance in this area.
It took a while to decide where to go. I first looked at Willow Springs, Missouri but they were only going to get just under 1 minute of totality and I was afraid I would miss that Diamond ring moment that happens so fast! I then considered West Plains. That's where we thought was going for a few weeks but then the weather forecast wasn't looking good. Seemed south was going to be cloudy. Looked like the further north and east we went, the better the chances. So just a couple days before, we changed our location to Van Buren, Missouri. It was a great decision.
My mom and friend Teresa joined me for this adventure. Van Buren is just over a 2 hour drive. I was worried about traffic, plus I wasn't sure which location would be best yet, so we left at 6:30am. I had done a lot of research on Google Maps to find best spot and had it narrowed down to 3 locations. I figured if we got there early enough, we'd have enough time to look at each one and decide. I wanted to avoid the crowds as much as possible.
When we arrived, we looked at the first 2 locations which weren't to bad. My friend Teresa hadn't been there before so the 3rd option was Big Spring area which Big Spring is the largest natural spring in the US so I knew she would like it. My concern was that it would be the busiest location. When I was researching, I did see this rock bar area along the current river so I was hoping it would be less crowded there.
We arrived at big spring and the crowd was just starting to gather but not to bad yet. They had a cool Smokey The Bear Hot Air Balloon that was giving people rides up in the air. After parking we walked over to the area I saw online. Looking like the perfect spot, we claimed are area by setting up our chairs and then walking around to see all the events and of course, Big Spring!
After enjoying the park, we went back to our spot, ate brunch (my mom packed lots of food for us), and then I set up the tripods and camera's. I had my main camera and 70-400mm lens set up with a solar filter and then my GoPro Black 12 for a timelapse video. Then I had another camera with a wide angle lens to capture the overall scenes.
The eclipse started at 12:39pm and I was set up and ready to go! I wanted to capture all the stages. With the camera's setting directly in the sun, both my main camera and GoPro were getting hot so in between shoots, I would shade them with umbrellas. It was a funny scene with me holding 2 umbrellas, my sunglasses and my solar glasses on at the same time so mom and Teresa captured this funny photo of me.
When 1:45 rolled around I was getting pretty nervous. We had 10 minutes left and I didn't want to miss that diamond ring. I had never captured a "Total" eclipse before. I captured the October 2023 eclipse in Ozark but we had 70% totality there. I was afraid the removal of the filter would mess me up. The closer it got, the more my stomach turned. I changed my settings to 9 stop bracket mode and about a minute before just started snapping hoping everything was in focus. Then the moment came.....the crowd in the field beside us started yelling "Wow" "Awww" and clapping. It was was magical!
I was just clicking. Still wanting to enjoy the moment, I would stop looking through the view finder and look up at it with my own eyes. Just to be able to look at the sun without glasses was just amazing. Everything got dark. The katydids started singing thinking it was night. The birds got quiet, confused about what was going on.
We could even see the stars come out. They did say on the news we should be able to see 4 planets. We got to see 3. The almost 4 minutes of glowing Corona was like a spiritual experience.
I knew my last big moment was coming up. I wasn't quite sure what I had captured yet, but I didn't want to miss the last chance for that Diamond ring moment so about 1 minute before it was over, I was back to focusing on the camera. Then it came. Everyone started cheering again.
I GOT IT!! The Diamond Ring! I was able to capture that final moment. Emotions of overwhelming joy and excitement flowed through me. The stress, pressure and nervousness washed away. I quickly put my filter back on and decided to look through the photos. I was amazed at how you could see the solar fire flames. I even captured the Baily's beads. I took over 300 photos of the totality. It was sure fun going through all of them lol.
Wanting to capture it til the end, I continued to take photos. I was surprised that the majority of the crowd left right after it happened. I figured they would stick around for that last hour and 15 minutes.
At 3:15 it was all over. That nearly 3 hours went by so fast but I'm so glad we went. Had a great time and got to see what was probably my once in a lifetime event. The next eclipse isn't going to be near us and I'll be in my 60's when that one happens.
When it come time to leave, we thought traffic would be good since a lot left early. We decided to eat before getting on the highway, but we had to cross the highway to get to the restaurants in downtown. Wow! That traffic was crazy!! People were heading towards Springfield from other towns further down like Popular Bluff. We had to drive 5 miles around the traffic just to get to downtown.
We ate, and got on the road. Traffic was clear until we got about halfway, then it was at a crawl. We would be at a crawl for about 20 minutes because of a stalled car on the side of the road. Traffic would move again, and then we'd be back to a crawl. The 2 hour 15 min drive took us 3 1/2 hours! But it was worth it. Below is a timelapse video of our experience. I also have photos available as prints, gifts, t-shirts and more along with compilations I created with my photos of the full eclipse that you can check out. My favorite is the one I created over the state of Missouri.
