If you’ve been reading my prior post you know that our area has been afflicted with lake effect snows and clouds. Richard Kuschell commented on my last post. It was directed to my email for moderation, and I called him. I filled him on my plans to head out Kalkaska way if downtown Traverse City proved cloudy. It was. Kalkaska is about 24 miles due east of Traverse City. There were a few lazy snow flakes falling as I got in the car to leave TC. I called Richard and told him I was heading out, and was going to stop at a shopping area south of Kalkaska. I forgot the name of the store at the time. It was Glens Market.
On the way out about half way to Kalkaska on M72 I could see the moon at about the time the partial phase was starting. At that point Scott Anttila called. Due to the noise of the car I thought it was Richard and told the good news that it was clearing up to the east. Well it wasn’t Scott told me he’d contact Richard on his cell, throw some telescopes in the car and head out to Glens to meet us.
The moon soon disappeared in the clouds and it started snowing. It was snowing quite heavily when I got to Kalkaska and stopped for gas.. When we all met up, Scott apprised us of the latest radar information and suggested we head south toward Cadillac on US131. Which we did with myself in the lead. On the way we could occasionally glimpse the partially eclipsed moon dimly through the clouds out of the left side windows. We stopped just south of the M113 junction to reconnoiter. The moon was dimly visible, but the lights of Cadillac 15 miles in the distance were shining brightly on the clouds. We were running out of time to out flank the clouds. I suggested heading down the road a few miles and stop at a DNR trail head parking lot north of Manton.
At the trail head we parked, and got out in the cold night of single digit temperatures. We watched the last bits of the partial phase through the clouds darkly. We also noted that in totality the edge of the shadow looked bluish, as explained on the spaceweather.com web site. The site explained that was due to the ozone layer in the earth’s atmosphere. It had turned out that we had all read that explanation. Now in past eclipses I’ve noticed a gray edge to the umbral shadow. This time I saw it to be bluish. Was it blue? Or was I predisposed to see blue due to the mention in the article? Or did the clouds dim the moon enough so it was easier to see? I dunno.
The end of totality passed unseen, only the time on my watch heralded totality’s end. The main event being over and toes and fingers getting cold, we headed back our separate ways with a new story to tell.
At least I did.
Tags: On the road by Bob Moler
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