I ended up deciding to go to Eclipse Totality after all and it was a great experience. I heard of a German couple who flew to Texas, then flew out to Boston when they saw the horrible weather forecasts for Texas. They drove out to near Jackman, Maine to experience totality under crystal clear skies for 3 minutes. Perhaps I should have gone to Maine also, but Franklin, IN was so close to us and weather predicted a chance of clear skies so I took it. The more southerly you are, the longer the totality duration - so in Indiana we had 4 minutes and 3 seconds compared to just about 3 minutes in Maine. The traffic from Boston, NYC, Toronto, etc. worried me as well. In the end high cirrus clouds were over the sun during totality in Franklin, thus I did not see the sharp pulsing waves of coronal radiation projections that were so emotionally affecting for me in 2017, but the entire experience was otherwise magnificent. I also fucked up in not removing my ND100000 solar filter from my 100-400mm lens just before C2 ("diamond ring") - it made me miss capturing the onset of C2, but I saw it directly which is what you should truly aim for anyway. I wonder if in trying to photograph the event, I miss the true human experience of the Eclipse which is so affecting and life-changing. Eclipse totality is utterly addicting and I can see ourselves in our retirement joining the brigade of Eclipse chasers worldwide.
My shot settings for the time lapse & diamond ring procession was bracketed exposures around:
- aperture f8
- shutterspeed 1/60 - 1/1000
- iso 100 - 400
- cam setup: Fujifilm X-T2 using Sigma 100-400mm f5.6-6.3 lens using K&F Concept 67mm ND100000 filter on Kirk ballhead atop Gitzo tripod.