Solar Eclipse 2017 - Headed from Oregon Territory to St. Joe, Missouri

This design is adapted from one developed for the Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri, looking forward to the total solar eclipse in August, 2017. The eclipse path is especially interesting considering the history of St. Joseph, which was one of the "jumping-off" points for settlers headed for the Oregon Territory - which is where the eclipse path heads, with a slight difference, that the eclipse path travels the opposite direction of the sun and settlers of the west, heading from Oregon eastward! Another slight difference is that the Moon's shadow will be moving into St. Joseph at twice the speed of sound, instead of about the speed of walking.

St. Joseph is more famous for being one end of the Pony Express, which Ewan illustrated in a design highlighting Buffalo Bill, who may have worked for, and certainly popularized, the Pony Express. It is also close to the beginning of the Santa Fe Trail. In the middle of America, where the West began, about halfway along the eclipse path, St. Joseph is truly in the middle of the midday night.

More about the eclipse in St. Joseph is at the city's eclipse page.

Note: If you are reading this ahead of the eclipse; lots of pages have instructions for making paper or cardboard viewers to see a partial eclipse without staring at the sun. They are fine, but if you forget, don't worry; any tree with dappled light between the leaves will suddenly have sickled light in the shape of the moon covering the sun. But you don't even need a tree. Cross your right and left fingers at 90 degrees from each other to make a loose grid of fingers, and watch the shadows of the holes in the grid.