This event goes centrally through Santa Cruz on a narrow path. Kirk and I are inside the shadow with good odds. But sun=-9, alt=74 due south. Barely do-able with standard configuration. Maybe tilt tripod just a bit towards the north.
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I did a 50 mile cycling ride in the afternoon, and planned to stay at the gym a couple of hours after that. The weather forecast had called for solid cloud, but as I rode, I could see that the clouds were a mixture of thick and thin cirrus. There was a chance it might work, given the altitude of the target of 74 degrees and due south, which past experience says is barely but definitely do-able with the standard configuration of the f/3.3 reducer. As the skies cleared somewhat as I rode back from Moss Landing, I calculated I'd have just enough time to get on target and recording. That's how it went. But, the clouds prevented a good selection of alignment stars and with time running out, I had to settle for Sirius and Betelgeuse. Only one constellation apart, not good for a good solution to the mount model. I only had time for a GoTo the target. I thought I could ID 3 of the stars and I went to what I thought was the bright star near the target. But on Watec insertion, I could not ID the field stars. No time to re-do, and still other stars were not visible. With 2 minutes to go, I just started recording anyway, hoping for maybe it being the right field after all. But I did not see the star I thought MIGHT be the target blink out. Afterwards, I did a GoTo M44, and the pointing was off by well over a full eyepiece diameter. Not useable. Clouds were the villain. A valiant effort for naught.
The good news, is that the many stars I saw in the field at 16x were telling me clearly that the -9 degree altitude of the sun was not a killer, at least for bright stars like this 10.0 star. At 16x the monitor field was dark gray with plenty of stars. It was brighter on the flip out camcorder, but not completely too bright.
Ran out of time.
After waiting to find two stars in twilight and high clouds and align, found field in eyepiece, swapped in camera, but not enough time to ID and center field, started recording anyway.
Target off frame. No observation.