On August 21, 2017 there was a total eclipse of the sun that was visible in the United States from the west coast to the east coast. Over the previous years I debated between sites in Oregon and Idaho. I finally decided to travel to Madras Oregon to attend the Oregon Solarfest. We camped at the Solartown camping area which was about 1.5 miles south of the center line. This gave us 2m and 3s of totality. The camping site was very nice with cut grass and plenty of porta potties, as well as a large common area with food trucks, and souvenir vendors. The campground was full with well over 20,000 people. I met many new friends and the shared experience added tremendously to the thrill of the eclipse. In our immediate eclipse camping area, we were surrounded by many talented individuals such as artists, musicians, engineers, scientists and a blacksmith making souvenirs. The weather was mostly clear except we were surrounded by smoke low on the horizon from the many wildfires in the area. In all it was a great deal of fun and worth the 10 to 12 hour drive.

My imaging telescope was a C80ED refractor, a DSLR camera and a Baader Solar Filter (for the partial phases) on an ASGT mount. For visual work I used a Stellarvue F50M scope with a Baader Solar Filter along some solar eclipse glasses and shadows cast by pinhole projectors (a colander).