Sat, Oct 14 2023 - Midday Hike + Safe Solar Eclipse Viewing! at Frazier-Rowe Park (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Charlie Cottingham Participants: Charlie Cottingham, Shirley W, Lee W, Huiling, Fred J, Mark W, Ann, Donna P, TracyCE, Liz, Kristi

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 Thankfully Saturday's overcast morning sky became mostly blue by midday, giving us ideal fall hiking weather and memorable views of the much-publicized solar eclipse at Frazier-Rowe and its pretty adjoining park, the Coralwood Nature Preserve.  It was fun having both newly active AOC members and several longtime Club veterans in our friendly group.  Our solar-filtered eclipse glasses & binocs worked out well for viewing the progress of the eclipse's successive partial phases.
  Right on cue (at the advertised ~11:45 AM "first contact") we noticed that the moon had taken a small dark "bite" out of the sun as it began sweeping downward across it.  By 1:15 PM the eclipse had reached it maximum darkness with the now-crescent-shaped solar disc ~53% shadowed by the "otherwise invisible" new moon.  As we continued observing from other clearings along the trails the bright upside-down "solar smile" was fattening again as the moon began its exit off the lower left edge of the sun. By ~2:50 PM (~3 hours after first contact) the final "lunar bite" had disappeared as the memorable partial eclipse ended for us and other metro Atlanta skygazers.  Eclipse watchers in a narrow "swath" of the USA from Oregon down thru Texas were treated to a bright "annular" ring of sunshine that completely encircled the dark moon at mid-eclipse.
  As on past outings LEE WANG has outdone himself once again by capturing the spirit and highlights of this event in a colorful "ReLive" video - complete with an uplifting musical score and satellite-view record of our hike route.  As usual Lee includes close-ups of beautiful flora & fauna that we admired along the way.  Thanks also to ANN ROGERS for sharing dramatic eclipse photos (toward the end of LEE's video) that she took through a dark lens of her eclipse glasses.   I'm sure you'll enjoy the video - just 2-1/2 minutes long - by clicking here and then clicking the "Play" arrow:  https://www.relive.cc/view/vxOQQgWXk2O
  - Posted by Charlie Oct 14 & 15