PEACHAM, VT — From its historic village district to its working farms and forests, Peacham embodies the charm and character of rural Vermont. Despite being home to just 715 residents, the town in the southern tier of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is one of the most picturesque in the state.
About 185 miles away lies Suffield, Connecticut, a bedroom community whose population of 15,752 makes it seem like a booming metropolis compared to Peacham. Suffield is home to Libby Lord, a longtime print and digital media advertising consultant, nature lover and award-winning “photography hobbyist.”
It was somewhat of a last-minute decision for Lord to journey northward for the opportunity to capture Monday’s rare total eclipse of the sun by the moon. How rare? Experts predict another will not happen for 20 years.
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On Sunday, she wrote on social media, “I’m going to try to get up north tomorrow in time to shoot the eclipse, but I’m not sure I’ll get there if the traffic is as bad as they’re saying it’s going to be.”
With the best vantage points to view the eclipse being in northern New England, Lord opted to embark up Interstate 91. At one point, she posted on social media that she was ready to give up the pursuit.
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“I don’t know how long it’s going to be before I bail,” she wrote. “I’ll wait till at least I’m on the edge of where you can see the full eclipse, I suppose. We are now going between 0 mph and 10 mph on I-91, about a million of us. 15 more exits to get where I want to be.”
In a phone interview Tuesday with Patch, Lord said, “I was afraid I wasn’t going to get there in time. I left home at 9 a.m., and it took about five hours.”
Around 2 p.m., Lord had her Nikon D-500 fixed lens camera set up to capture the phenomenon from a small green near a church in the center of Peacham. The eclipse was set to begin around 2:14 p.m.
She wrote, “I made it. I chose Peacham. Not crowded at all. Having a little trouble with tripods, some wind and shutter releases. Not giving up! I want to enjoy the experience too.”
During the point of the eclipse known as totality, the moon completely blots out the sun’s disk, causing uncharacteristic darkness and revealing the sun’s elusive outermost layer called the corona.
On this occasion, the path of totality crossed through 13 states, including Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in New England. Others were Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
The path of totality lasted just 61 seconds, so Lord had little, if any, room for error.
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She nailed it perfectly, though she felt it was a bit off.
“I had a little trouble right in the middle when the corona was showing up,” she said. “Not sure I got that part, which is very disappointing. But when it seemed like I wasn’t going to be able to get it together, I just watched the beautiful eclipse, because that’s important too -just experiencing it.
It was amazing to see!”
She described the experience as “the best of both worlds.”
“When the moon passed in front of the sun, and all the layers of light were showing, it was really incredible,” she said. “I wish I could be only watching or only photographing, but it’s not possible. It was so beautiful.”
When it was over, it was back in the car to head home, as lodging owners in the area were taking advantage of the rare opportunity to cash in.
“Staying over was off the table with hotels charging $800-plus for one night,” she said.
She arrived back in Connecticut around 9 a.m., exhausted yet exhilarated by what she called one of the greatest experiences of her life.
An avid lover of nature photography, particularly birds, Lord will add her eclipse photos to the collection of work offered for sale at Fine Art America. Photos from her excursions to beautiful spots as varied as Yellowstone National Park, Savannah, Ga., Acadia National Park, Paris and Florence, Italy are also available at the Libby Lord Photography Facebook page.
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