I watched the Eclipse in Argentina - Smarter Every Day 221

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. I am in the globe museum in Vienna, Austria, and going to show you something really neat. This is called a Lunarium. A Lunarium is a really interesting device used to calculate the position of solar eclipses. You can see you have a candle here that represents the sun. You have the moon, which goes around the earth when you input power to the crank there and it calculates the position on the globe where the shadow will be. So this is a really interesting thing and you know, I'm excited about solar eclipses ever since the one in America a couple of years ago. My wife and I, for the first time, we've been able to plan a trip around a total solar eclipse. So go with us to Argentina and let's see what it looks like in the middle of the desert as we observe a solar eclipse together. Let's go get Smarter Every Day.

[Music] Holy cow... my beard's a beard. It's real beard. Look at that. The ground crew are wearing full on winter gear. Uh Oh! Mendoza Si... Gracias [inaudible]. That's where we’re going, excuse me, I'm eating an Empanada. Punto de Observacion looks like it's directly ahead.

So after days of travel, we ended up here at the far western edge of Argentina, just outside of a little town called Bella Vista in San Juan province. The reason this eclipse was such a big deal is that it's a setting Eclipse, meaning the photos could capture the eclipse and the horizon in the same shot. In this location means the shot would be beautiful in these mountains right in front of you. This was supposedly the spot to watch from tons of stages and live feeds, all kinds of things that were already set up the night before.

We met a ton of really cool people like this famous news anchor who showed us the huge lens that we're going to use to film it with. Everyone was really cool and excited, but when I saw this drone flying overhead, I realized that this wasn't the spot for us. Okay, so we just went to the site where half the world is going to be literally for the eclipse. No, I'm thinking no, because I saw people with drones and stuff. I'm not thinking that's where I want to be.

No, no, but this is gorgeous. There's pretty, I'm thinking on the side of the road somewhere with you. We drove two hours back across the desert that night back to our hotel, and the next day we threw all our gear in the car and armed with the solar eclipse timer app, we headed back out into the desert to wing it along with thousands of other people from all over the world. Look at all these people here. Yeah. For the eclipse. This is the only store for like forever. Good for the guy that owns this store. Es un loco dia para ti? Si... It's a big dia! Does this feel like the Science Olympics to you? It's not the Science Olympics.

People are from everywhere though. Yeah.. and people are super travelers to not so super travelers at this point. We're trying to figure out what the photo is going to look like. So my beautiful bride is driving and I am using an augmented reality app. You can see the ecliptic line right there. Yeah, I think this is it. Look at that. So you got two mountains there. Hola! Habla Espanol? English! Cool man. I'm Destin. Stefan, have you set your orientation up yet? Is it polar aligned right now?

What do you think adventure wife? 318 to 296 We're looking like... there. Yeah, that's it. Let's just call that good. (hat plops down on ground) Do you mind checking my setup for me? Yeah, why not? So you came all the way from Switzerland? Yeah That's Amazing. Thank you very much. At my first total solar eclipse, I got so excited. I left the solar filters on and didn't get the shots I wanted. So when it came right down to the moment here, Tara couldn't resist poking a little fun at me.

Okay. Are these the only lenses you have to take off? (Automated voice) "Thirty Seconds... hands on camera filters" Haha... it's just for you babe. (Automated voice) Remove camera filters. Got 'em. Voice "15" "10" (Automated Voice) 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...... "Glasses Off... Glasses Off" [Camera shutter firing] Oh, come on babe. (Automated Voice) Observer for planets and stars. How cool. WHAT!?

[Camera controls clicking to roll up exposure] It's a 360 sunset. I decided to set up a camera behind us to capture the eclipse progression through the sky in front of the Andes. I had a photography filter on my front camera and I would run it back and forth between the camera in the front and the camera in the back and that would take these shots along the partial phase phenomenon progression. They say a picture's worth a thousand words and this one's worth far more than that to me because Tara and I built it together.

We picked the spot. Everything about this captures the entire experience with my wife. Probably the most interesting thing about this photo though is that last photo before the sun goes down behind the mountains. We didn't expect that and the way it went down was pretty cool. Do you see what's happening? Yeah. Hold on. The moon. The moon is on one side. We didn't get the total before we got the sunset.

It's cool because the mountains running away. That's pretty cool. That's really cool. Actually I gotta I gotta take some photos of that. Do you think that the moon is going to move fast enough for the... I don't but I gotta take a picture of the back right, because it's going to come up by the mountains. Wow. It's going fast. It's going very fast. Do you want me to push buttons up here? I need another battery. Uh, yeah, I got it. I got it. I got what we need. We're good.

Do you want me to push buttons up here? No. No, no. Okay. It's going fast. I'm coming back. Yeah, you should. I wasn't expecting that. Did we get it right there? Yeah, we got it. That's weird. Aw Man. I really wasn't. I thought it was going to... it's like we're, Oh, which one's gonna win? The mountains are gonna win. The mountains are going to win. Absolutely are. Oh, that's cool.

Oh Man. How cool is that? And then the lights gone. It's almost almost. Oh... it's so close! Oh, can I see it out there yet? Or is it too bright? Too Bright, too bright. Bright. Too Bright. Oh, it's like a little triangle. Take a photo. Take a photo. Oh, Take a photo. Take a photo. I'm doing my best I don't know what I'm doing! I did. I did. Okay. Now. Oh, look at that what a neat way to end the eclipse. Huh?!

I just wasn't expecting it. I wasn't either, but I wasn't, oh, it's getting cold fast. Look at the smoke rising off of the mountain. You see that? Yeah. Hey, you ready? Okay. It's going to work. People will love it I promise. All right, so, oh, all right. You Ready? Ready? Okay. Thank you for supporting every crazy thing I do on Smarter Every Day. It's a, yeah, consider subscribing, perhaps. Would you like to say something?

Thank you for supporting my husband and our family as we've had some wild ride over the past decade, so thank you very much. You don't talk a lot on here, so I think this is kind of enjoyable. We gotta stop before I... twerk my back. Until we break. It was your fault for twisting.