Like so many of us, I also got to experience the April 8th Eclipse. I live in the path of totality, but we had forecasted fairly heavy clouds for the duration, so I elected last moment to drive a couple hours west to a friend's house in north-eastern Ohio where the sky was a lot clearer. There was some residual high-level cloud and haze, but nothing serious enough to significantly impact the event either photographically or visually for me.

This was my first time seeing a total eclipse; I thought it would be fun and interesting. I did NOT expect it to be such an overwhelming experience! Finally, now I get it! The single memory that stood out the most was how instantly it got dark at totality - like turning off the floodlight in my back yard at night. I knew it would get dark, but I was not prepared for that. It's taken me two days to process (mentally) what I experienced enough to post my image. Needless to say, my imaging around and during totality was not my best effort. I had visions of collecting exquisite HDR images with all kinds of controlled stacks of exposures. I ended up with a useable image that had too little exposure and too high a gain (once again, NoiseXTerminator to the rescue....), but, given the overwhelming experience of the moment, I think I did alright. My corona doesn't have the dynamic range of some of the best of them, but I can see the main prominences; not bad for a small travel rig of spare astrophotography equipment. Most importantly, it commemorates the experience I had and I am enjoying looking at it.

Among some of the stories one reads about - there were two horses in the neighboring yard that went into their barn during totality and came back out to graze about ten minutes after it got light again. And there was a rooster somewhere up the street that started crowing as soon as totality ended.  (both these things really happened!) In preparing for the eclipse, I read a number of pages about eclipse imaging that had a couple pieces of advice which really stuck with me:
         1. Don't spend all of the precious few minutes of totality staring at a computer screen.
         2. No matter how long totality lasts, it will feel like eight seconds.
Now I finally understand those two statements. Sorry to the author of the second one - I didn't bookmark the page, so I can't credit you directly! But wise words of advice.

In terms of imaging, I have many lessons learned that I am writing down for next time. I feel like imaging an eclipse is something you get right on your second or third try. For a first try, I'm happy that I got something I can remember it from and motivate me for next time.