21 Aug - Eclipse, Ellsworth AFB Museum's Missile Tour, Truck Wash, Crock Pot Roast

21 August
This morning we hung around waiting for the eclipse.  Sky's were clear, not a cloud in sight, bright sunny day.  We did not have any eclipse glasses so we just used Oakley's.  Ha!  Just kidding!  Our neighbors next door had a pair (of glasses, that is) they got at the base library, but I already had a make-shift solution based on my Internet research.  You take a pair of binoculars and project the sun's image through them onto a piece of paper.  Works great!  What did not work great was to shoot a picture using my iPhone through our neighbor's eclipse glasses lens.  The image was just a blob, assuming a focus issue.

Eclipse schedule here at Rapid City SD  Times minus six hours to local.

Image taken by my iPhone through my neighbor's eclipse glasses.  Fail!

So here are some images from this morning, through the binoculars projected onto a greeting card.

1052 hrs

1127 hrs

1129 hrs

1135 hrs

1140 hrs - nine minutes before the maximum here

1153 hrs (four minutes after the maximum for this location)

1203 hrs

1220 hrs

After the eclipse we had some lunch and then made our way to the Ellsworth AFB Air and Space Museum for a tour of a Minuteman Missile Silo.  It is located just outside the main gate so civilians can get to it without a military  ID card.  Now this is a different missile tour than the one we did a couple days ago over by Wall SD, but the same weapon system.  They have a training silo here on base but this one we get to go down into!!  This tour is open to the public as long as they have a valid drivers license and pass a background check by Security Forces.

Our tour guide was retired Air Force and did a great job.

Museum entrance.  We will come back here to tour it.  Closed today as they are installing new carpeting.

Our tour van

Arrived at the missile site.  Joe, our guide is pictured with folded arms and a baseball hat looking towards the camera.  We have a small tour group, which was nice.  The white trailer sits over top the silo cover.  It is used to transport and place the nuclear warhead..  Normally it would not be there.

They use this vehicle to transport the missile.  It is tilted up with hydraulics to place the missile into the silo 

The small hatch that is open here (and in the next picture) accesses the switches to start the process of opening the large hatch behind it.  That is where maintenance personnel descend into the silo.  That is the ONLY personnel entrance into the silo, and it is alarmed of course.

The large cylinder here is part of the locking mechanism to the personnel hatch.  It releases the large hatch.  Maintenance personnel and security forces personnel each enter separate codes and when successful, there is a large concrete cylinder the maintenance person rides down to enter the silo.  It takes a long time for the maintenance person to descend, which is part of the security system.  It is alarmed too.

South Dakota missile control and launch sites.  There were MANY missiles out here but they were deactivated as part of the treaty between us and Russia

Doreen points to D-1 and D-9 facilities we visited yesterday east of Wall SD

A look down inside the missile silo!

This is the device we saw yesterday (a picture on yesterday's blog) which is used to lower maintenance down the side of the missile

The umbilical which connects the missile to the electronics, computer and environmental signals.  It is jettisoned clear of the missile upon launch. 

The warhead, the business end of this thing.

Equipment racks surround the missile, contain computer and electronics equipment

Coins at the bottom of the silo, dropped by those who visited the silo, wishing this or any nuclear missile may never be fired.

Our tour guide with the baseball hat on in the middle

The aluminum strip pictured below is graduated in degrees.  They used lasers to bounce off mirrors and this strip, aligned through a portal to stars and benchmarks above the ground to precisely locate and aim the missile. Wow!   This is all before GPS.

 

The piston here is part of the mechanism that can blow the silo cover off in about three seconds.  Normally during maintenance processes the silo cover i"crawls" open in about 45 minutes on the rail and track shown below.  Once the missile launches, the silo is destroyed and cannot be reused.  Chances are it would be hit by an incoming nuclear missile from the opposing side so it would not matter anyway (MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction)

The rail system used to open the silo for missile maintenance

Up top side, this concrete structure was added to facilitate visitors.  Normally this does not exist.

The security forces vehicle used to protect the silo and the missile during transport.

Inside the security vehicle has been stripped, but it was built on a Dodge Power Wagon chassis

Front view of the security forces vehicle

Another view of the missile transport vehicle

Wow, that was incredible!  I am so glad we were able to get on this tour.  We will stop back at the museum to finish the inside portion another day.

We put a beef roast in the crockpot this morning and Doreen added the vegetables before we went on the tour.  On the way home we stopped at the base car wash and gave the RAM a bath.  It is going in for an oil change tomorrow and we can't have it dirty!!  The roast and veggies were done when we got home and we enjoyed a great supper.