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Space Station Transiting 2017 ECLIPSE, My Brain Stopped Working - Smarter Every Day 175


5m read
·Nov 3, 2024

Five, four, three, two, one, transit.

Hey, it's me. Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. August 21st 2017. It's Matt Whitman, it's Trevor. We're in the middle of Wyoming. This is a really special spot. You have to understand we're on a reservation, and you're not allowed to come here.

No, you're not allowed to come here. You're just not allowed to come here, but the Lady that delivered Matt's son? Yep. Midwife, owns this land. It's a big deal. What's a really big deal is that Trevor did the math. We started talking months ago. The international space station is going to transit in front of the eclipse, right? It's going to happen. This is the spot.

Like this is the exact spot. I'll let you know what the farmer said earlier today when we told him that his land was the spot. This is Mr. Fleming and this is his land. He leases this and he farms it. And you just found out that the space station is going to transit here? Just found out. Didn't know anything about it.

We had some extra solar film so we set up Mr. Fleming's old binoculars so he could watch the eclipse. We then took a few minutes and chatted about why we thought Crow Heart, Wyoming was the best possible place to watch it. You have the best spot in the U.S. - X marks the spot right here.

Yeah, it does. So here's the deal. So in Kentucky, they're going to get to see the eclipse longer. Twenty seconds. Twenty seconds longer. But here you get to see it for almost two and a half minutes and you get the transit of the international space station. We don't have anybody in Crow Heart, Wyoming. Really? No. But this is a lot of activity for us here.

Really? Like the most that you've seen in your lifetime? Yeah, since I've lived here. And how long is that? I've been here 30 years. Yeah. Are you ready for us to leave now? As soon as this is over. laughter We'll get out of your hair, man. [Laughs]

We got Mr. Fleming set up with his binoculars here. So you're good to go. Is that a decent trade, letting us use your land to get your binoculars set up? Good trade. (Laughter) There's good people all over America. You know it. Oh, yeah.

After 4 hours of setup, we were super happy that the clouds cleared out so we could finally see if the math was right. Hey, come double check my focus if you get a second. - Yeah, we got a minute. Literally. Literally a minute now. 59 seconds. You can see the sun spot sharp. That's good. 40. - 40 seconds. Look at everything and make sure that everything is rolling. Final touch of my camera.

20 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Transit. Oh! It happened! I saw it! I totally saw it! Dude! - Did you see it? - No, I didn't see it. - It happened. I saw it in the monitors. - Go back to your recorder. It happened. - You saw it? - I swear. I saw it. - Six, five, four, three, two, one, Transit. - Oh! It happened! I saw it! I totally saw it! Dude!

(Music) Four, three, two, one. Transit. There it was! That is so awesome! Dude! Yes! (Music) The math worked.

This excitement from successfully getting the transit continued up until the point of the total eclipse where I was so blown away I totally forgot everything I had practiced. It was insane. My, my brain was saturated. This is my shadow band... piece, uh... Did you come up with something? - No, no I - Bump it up. - There it is. There they are. Look at that. That's weird.

  • One of the GoPros has died. - That's cool. What? (Camera clicking) (Sounds of excitement) That is crazy. Oh, my word! Take your glasses off! (Kids laughing) That is bizarre! The stars! Oh, wait... It's overhead sunset.

I had made up my mind ahead of time that no matter what happened with the photography at max eclipse, I was going to drop it all and go spend time with my family. Which is exactly what I did, and it was really cool. This is awesome. I did so bad at this I'm just going to give up. I did so bad.

-- What do you see? Look around. That is crazy. That cool look around behind you ain't that wild? Look around guys look around ain't that cool? Look at the sun. I love the fact that this was so amazing to me that it just overrode my brain. I just wanted to experience it.

I didn't I didn't think about making videos or taking good photos anymore. I just wanted to look at it. 20 seconds, I totally bought stuff all about photography. I don't really care. Yeah, here it comes. What? Wow. Watch it fade on. I totally forgot about the drone. I never took my filter off.

So yeah, I didn't get good photos. I didn't pull the filters off because I was kind of in the moment. And I really enjoyed it with my family. Trevor, however, did get excellent photos, and you can go check those out on his website. I'll leave links below, but man, this was quite an experience.

Do you want a piece of gum? Would love a piece of gum. What did you think about the eclipse? - It was awesome. Was it awesome? Cool, thanks for coming with me. - You're welcome. What you think, sir?

Well, I want to thank you for these. - Yeah? They made all the difference in the world. Did they really? - Yeah. That's awesome, man - Yeah. Thanks for letting us hang out here! Pretty weird. - Yeah. What'd you think? Did you cry?

No, I didn't cry. - You didn't cry? - I was glad to see the old sun come back [laughs] - a hardened man like you? 'No, I've never cried.' I kind of I kind of got a little weird. I got a little weird. Did you get weird? - I got weird. Do you want to see the space station transit the sun? - Yeah, I'd love to.

Three, two, one. Transit - Oh it happened I saw it! - there it was, size of a football field just flew in front. I'll be damned. Huh. That's great. Follow my nose. I can't believe how fast that was. - Yeah.

- One, Transit - Oh it happened I saw it! [Laughter] I know you normally don't put swears on your videos, but you would be an idiot to leave that off. I'm a professional minister, and I don't think that even counts as a swear because he's a cowboy.

What did you think? - I cried, tears of joy. I couldn't not cry. Really? - Really. It's beautiful. What'd you think [unintelligible]? - I get goosebumps.

Okay, that's it. I am Destin. This is Trevor- Trevor where can they find your stuff? - patreon, patreon.com slash your name. My name, alright I'll leave a link below, and this is Matt, ten minute Bible hour.

That's it the stars aligned, or 'the' star aligned with our stuff. That was cool. Anyway, I'm Destin. You're getting smarter every day. Have a good one.

Can't believe my brain quit working. - I can. - Why? - Weird that you can't believe it. - Really? It's weird that you're surprised about it. Of course, your brain quit working. That was awesome.

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