Ye Olde Photographer wandered to southeastern Illinois where we hung out in Cave-In-Rock State Park just up the Ohio River from the town of — you guessed it — Cave-In Rock. There in spite of a few clouds we managed to see and photograph the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. YOP and his Faire Spouse combined that with visits to some family and friends and exploration of a few interesting towns and parks. We had a great time.

YOP learned some things. If he is still "on the green side of the dirt" and able to travel for the next total eclipse in 2024, he may upgrade a few things. It would be interesting to try a real glass and metal name brand eclipse filter and see if optical quality improves. Unfortunately they cost around ten times what the Mylar and cardboard filters cost. He has been thinking about a really stiff, heavy tripod with just two or three leg sections and a load rating upwards of 20 pounds to use with some of his larger cameras anyway. It would be nice to have such a sturdy support and better yet, top it off with a geared 3-axis head. With a 10 or 12x magnification, the sun transits across the frame rather quickly; it would be good to be able to make tiny adjustments smoothly.

This experience documented here was the high point of Eclipse Ramble 2017.