THE Traveler: Carlton McMillan of Lakeville.
The scene: A solar eclipse darkened the sky in Nebraska.
The trip: McMillan spent months researching the best spots to view the total solar eclipse that crossed America this summer. He picked several, knowing that weather might require a move. His family "did not fully share my excitement," as he wrote in an e-mail, and was wary of traveling hundreds of miles to see "a shadow move across the sky." Yet at 3 a.m. on Aug. 21, they were all in the car headed to Nebraska's Sandhills, after spending the night with friends in Omaha. During the first stretch, McMillan saw stars overhead, an indication of clear skies. "Then the terror hit. Fog. Heavy, pea soup fog." They kept traveling west and made it to another preselected spot. "It was by a windmill (which was by plan) and we were a family among a few other people scattered along a very secluded stretch of barren land with not even a roaming cell signal. We were less than a mile from the centerline of the moon's path along the ground."
The moment: McMillan set up his cameras; his wife and children put on eclipse-viewing glasses. "Slowly the moon began to nibble at the disc of the sun ... Suddenly that ball of glowing light that we all know and love just went away. Poof. Daylight was replaced by night." Stars and planets appeared out of blue skies, McMillan wrote. And his reluctant family? They were awestruck.
Share your photos: To submit your travel photo for consideration to Viewfinders, share it on Instagram tagged with #STtravel, or e-mail a jpeg to viewfinders@startribune.com.
