The Great American Eclipse of 2017 was a trip more than a year in the making. I had my eyes set on it after ticking off my #1 bucket list item: viewing the northern lights. A total solar eclipse has long been #2 on my bucket list, and the 2017 eclipse was the best chance for me to fulfill my dream.

Planning for the eclipse was much easier compared to planning for chasing auroras, thanks to celestial mechanics. There are far less variables involved here. The time, duration and path were already predetermined by the laws of physics. You just need to be there at the specified time and place, and just allow nature to dazzle you. One could even plan for every single solar eclipse in their lifetime by heading to Wikipedia's solar eclipse page. For this trip, there were only 2 variables: location and weather. Though I cannot control the weather, I could at least pick a location where the weather is statistically most favorable.

Map of the path of totality

From the map of the path of totality, it is easy to see why it was called The Great American Eclipse. There were many locations to choose from. But from my friend's previous experience of eclipse viewing, I knew what every eclipse or celestial event viewer's worst nightmare was:

Clouds.

Can you imagine how bummed out everyone would be if the sky were to be blocked out by thick clouds during totality? The horror! That was also one of the main reasons why I did not travel for the 2016 Eclipse in Indonesia, which was much closer to home. Living in the tropics, I know for a fact that tropical moisture is very unfavorable to any astronomy activity. Moisture and huge plumes of Cumulonimbus clouds are ever abundant in this part of the world.

With that in mind, that rules out most of the eastern half of the US. The eclipse was in August, at the height of summer. Summer temperatures and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico are not a good mix. After some Googling, we came across this very informative site about the best spots to view the eclipse. From the site, the first entry: Madras, Oregon, had the following description:

"While the Oregon coast is at risk of marine clouds, the interior of this state actually enjoys the nation’s best weather prospects. Madras is easily accessible from Portland with a two-hour drive and sits at the junction of four highways for good mobility. A bonus is the prospect of seeing Mt. Jefferson to the west darken as totality envelops this prominent peak 17 seconds before totality in Madras."

I was sold at "best weather prospects". So Madras, Oregon it was!

Madras, right smack in the middle of the narrow band of totality.

Other than weather, the location of Madras was also attractive. Madras is only a relatively short 2.5 hours drive away from Portland. Portland, being the largest city in Oregon, could serve as a base for meetups and other side activities. It was also more convenient for me as I planned to fly into the west coast from Asia via the Pacific route.

Now that a rough location was set, next was pin pointing the exact spot for viewing. Fortunately, the tiny city of Madras knew that it was going to be a popular spot for eclipse chasers, and had everything planned out with the Oregon SolarFest:

Eclipse festival in Madras, Oregon

There were two options:

1. Solar City: Includes concerts and other fun stuffs. 
2. Solar Town: Just plain old camping site with limited facilities. 

Since my primary goal was just to view the solar eclipse, I went with option 2. By that time, it was already late 2016. There were already news reports of vacancies running out in Madras.  So finally in early January 2017, I pulled the trigger to reserve a spot in Solar Town:

Solar Town entry ticket!

And so that was it! All that was left were the other side trips and logistics for before and after Madras, and of course, waiting for the date: August 21, 2017.