We’ll say the adventures began here. For the narrative of the story, at least, the Annular Solar Eclipse of October 2023 brings us to where we are today.
Why Crater Lake? In 2017, I traveled to Salem, Oregon, and traveled around the northwest corner of the state with my friend, and witnessed the Total Solar Eclipse from her grandparents’ backyard. I’ve always pined live in the PNW. This trip did nothing if not solidify that goal I am still chasing. I knew for then that while I could not yet make the leap across the country, I could still seek out reasons to visit again. So after the eclipse ended and the fanfare subsided, I learned that the next US eclipse – an Annular Solar Eclipse, not Total – would cross over Oregon in 2023. In its path?
Crater Lake.
The next year, I was living in Savannah, Georgia, where I founded the now-nonprofit Sidewalk Science Center. Astronomy wouldn’t be part of our offerings for another year. Now, six years later, it’s our most popular type of event, and we have 20 telescopes up and down the coast of Florida bringing the cosmos to families and organizations every week.
I didn’t know any of this when I set my sights on Crater Lake for the 2023 Eclipse. I only knew that I wanted to be standing on the rim of the volcano as the Moon crossed the Sun. My friends bought me an Oregon “Homesick” candle, which I burned incrementally, telling myself I’d burn it for the last time the night before I flew to Oregon again to witness the eclipse.
Six years later, now teaching high school and running a nonprofit, I did just that, taking five friends and SSC social media followers on a five-day trip to a cabin in central Oregon. It was the first time I’d see truly dark skies and the Milky Way shining bright in more than 12 years, and the adventures we had on that trip were unforgettable.
The best part of it is, I had our smallest telescope with me, a Celestron NexStar 4SE. It fits into carry-on luggage if you have the space in a suitcase. One of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken is the one I took at sunrise the morning of the eclipse, the Sun peeking over the mountaintops as the telescope stares over the vast expanse of water filling the lake. Though the morning turned cloudy then, and we barely saw any of the eclipse, it was perhaps my favorite trip I’ve ever taken. Witnessing that eclipse would have just been the cherry on top.
Now I write to you 11 months later, with 13,000 miles of road trips under my belt in 2024. We hosted a festival to witness the Total Solar Eclipse from Indiana, I did a 19-day road trip around Arizona in June, a 5-day trip to Texas to deliver a telescope to a grad student, and just two days, I returned from a 10-day trip in Utah that finally pushed me to make this blog.
I want to share these journeys, and in the process, I want to share the wonders of the night, the planets, the stars, the clusters, the galaxy. The sky is for everyone to experience, and what better way to explore it than while traveling…
To your next adventure,
Alex Martin
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