My journey to this year's total eclipse was not as dramatic as my friend, Uwe Deutermann, but was none the less rather interesting.  It seems like a year ago, Uwe and I briefly talked about going to Texas together with our wives to view and image the eclipse.  Then, I was offered to go to a winery resort in Texas by a friend who lives in Austin and setup my scope/camera to be viewed by all present on a large monitor.  At that point, and Uwe can correct me, he wanted a more secluded setting to enjoy the eclipse, vs. a crowded venue.  However, it turned out due to a family reason, I could not accept the winery offer and instead, decided to head to Ohio where we also have family living in several cities.  My wife and I joined up with her brother and sister-in-law and we headed to Indian Lake, which was only a few miles southeast of the totality midpoint.  There were several major advantages of this site even besides having a wonderful location within the total eclipse path providing 4 minutes of totality, such as having more family living there to setup on their property and simply making a wonderful family event and party out the day.   So, lots of family, food, drinks, no traffic, and a near perfect location to view and image the eclipse.  The only potential issue was, will we have clear skies!!!!!

My brother-in law and I set up in an open spot with his Canon DSLR, zoom telephoto lens and a Thousand Oaks solar filter, while I tried my new Lunt 40mm dedicated Ha solar telescope with a PlayerOne Apollo monochrome camera.  We literally took what amounted to a couple hundred photos and a few videos, hoping to get some descent images of this amazing event, which I was very fortunate enough to have experienced once before in Oregon back in 2017.  While we did not have a perfectly clear sky and had to accept some cloudiness, vs. when I had perfect skies back in 2017, we still captured some descent images of this magnificent event of nature.   So, I am posting just a few images here from different phases, two from the DSLR and two from the Lunt scope.  Overall, we had a wonderful experience of this marvel of nature with family and friends.  Iceland in 2026.........hmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!