Today was an exciting day for many Americans as they watched the eclipse as it moved across the country.

Many traveled to be in the totality zone, but since I was teaching a class I only was able to observe a partial eclipse.

As I drove to work this morning I began to wonder if we would even be able to see the eclipse. There was a very thick marine layer and it was very overcast when I arrived at work.

However, by the time our morning break came the marine layer had burnt off and it was prime viewing weather for an eclipse.

I had a nice device with different sized holes that I knew I could use to view the eclipse. I just had to find the right size hole to let the sun shine through.

Here you can see the shadow of the wheel and the crescent shape of the sun as it shone through the medium sized holes. This was when the eclipse was near maximum here.

I also had a variable neutral density filter that I had used before to take pictures of a partial eclipse. I decided to try and take a few pictures again. I basically placed the darkest part of the filter over my camera and aimed up at the sun while positioning with the LCD display.

I really should have worked with the settings of my camera before I tried this today, but finally found some that worked 🙂

This was the best picture that I took today, and it was near the height of coverage. I should have had my tripod for stability, but this morning was just too busy to do things right.

Many of my friends and family live in the zone of totality. One of my friends is a great photographer and I was eagerly awaiting his photos. This picture was taken by my friend Paul Julian who lives in Nebraska. It is one of the best that I have seen.

As I left work tonight the sky was again cloudy which is atypical of the weather this time of year. However, clouds in the late afternoon sky in California often mean that we are in for a beautiful treat to end the day.

On a day when so many pictures were taken of the sun, here is one last picture to remember the day.

While out walking tonight I was able to watch a beautiful sunset unfold. I just had to stop and take pictures of the sun setting over the Altamont.

During the day it may have been obscured, but in the end it was putting on quite a show.

Steven