Did you see yesterday’s solar eclipse, total or partial? Tell us what the experience was like in your neck of the woods!
12 thoughts on “Did You See It?”
Hubster had his camera set up and got some good pictures. We were at about 90%. But our photographer son drove up to Wyoming (100%) and got fantastic shots. Wish we could add pictures here. I’ve shared a few of them, plus a couple videos of his setup, on my Facebook page: http://facebook.com/AuthorTerryOdell
As for what it was like here; my biggest takeaway was how much the temperature dropped as the moon crossed in front of the sun.
My husband and I were at the lake during the eclipse, and a delightful young woman went to every beachgoer with welding glass we could look through to safely witness the partial eclipse (60%) while an older gentlemen passed around crackers and dip. Gotta love small town livin’.
Thanks for sharing, Terry! Where we were (Southern California), I walked out of an office building into what looked like late afternoon light. I do remember the last full eclipse, and marveling at the way the birds suddenly took to the trees thinking (evidently) that it was nighttime and time to roost for the night.
That’s a really nice story, Sue. We passed around a device that showed the progress of moon and sun from our position. Not the same as seeing the real McCoy through special glass, however!
Well here in downtown ATL, about 50 of us, including a couple of SVP’s and the Chief Nursing Officer (at the day-job), gathered on the upper level of the employee parking deck, most with “solar glasses,” a few with pinhole boxes, and yours truly here all geeked out with a small telescope and tripod (to observe indirectly – and it was a hit, BTW).
We dined on Sun Chips and Moon Pies (sorry, no RC Cola), and watched the street lights and building signs come on and the sky and shadows get a funky greenish tint.
A rooftop at neighboring GA State had a similar crowd.
It got noticeably cooler, and even after it peaked at 97%, cool breezes still blew gently from the southwest for about 10 minutes or so.
It was all over, for all intents and purposes, by 2:50 and like the end of a New Year’s Eve celebration, we filtered back to the real world, let down that it was over, but glad to have been a part of it.
I live in Greenville, SC where we got to enjoy the total eclipse. It was worth the hype and any hassle it took to get here. When the sun was blacked out and two o’clock turned to twilight in a moment. It would stop you wherever you were and turn your eyes upward.
The diamond ring was scary because we’ve been told so many times not to look at the sun. It was a day to remember.
We live southeast of Nashville. A town called McMinnville. We were in the Path of Totality. Such an amazing experience! One of the amazing things was just as the sun was coming out of totality it cast a strange group of crescent shaped lights on our garage door. Very cool!
I forgot to add:
Each time i hear about / experience an eclipse, I am always reminded of Mark Twain’s _A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court_, where the Yankee uses his memory of the almanac to use an eclipse to save his hide by promising to return the sun if they’ll set him free…
🙂
Where I live was 95% coverage. Right before the eclipse, a thunderstorm developed right on top of my county so many of the parties were washed out, and many missed seeing it except on TV. It was the only rain in NC at the time. Someone obviously p*ssed off Mother Nature really badly. I had planned to watch it on TV anyways so no problems for me.
From reports all around the 100% area, this eclipse was the economic equivalent of hosting the Superbowl for many communities. People from as far an Europe flew here to watch it.
We had totality here in Carbondale, IL. It was nothing short of miraculous. We live out in the country and were able to watch the whole 2+ hours from our back deck. The most surprising part was that the darkness didn’t approach or recede very gradually. Even when the sun was just a sliver, the light didn’t seem to change all that much.
When totality occurred, it was like a disc slipping into place–it happened all at once, and we suddenly knew we could take our glasses off. Even though we don’t have close neighbors, you could hear people in the distance shouting excitedly. Though we had 2 minutes and 37 seconds here, we could tell immediately when it was time to put the glasses back on. That part was a bit scary. Monstrous, even, in its significance. From extreme joy to extreme danger in an instant.
In all, it was a humbling and unforgettable day. My husband took a time-lapse video of our house, and I cut it down to about 15 seconds. You can see it on my FB page.
I was determined to see the corona so I drove from Seattle (roughly 92%) to a ranch outside Mitchell, OR, where totality lasted a bit over 2 minutes. It was so totally worth it. I took photos, and I’ve seen plenty of photos and videos, but they don’t capture what you really see. The shimmering light, and the shapes, and the reflections on the moon are just not adequately captured in 2D. To use a hackneyed phrase it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It just isn’t. It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s real, and it’s right in front of your face. And then it’s gone. It was so fast I can hardly believe it lasted the time it did. I wanted it back to stare at it some more. I now understand eclipse chasers. You can see the stars during the eclipse, and it sure did get cold, but I was boiling before the end of it.
Post eclipse I experience a Godard-inspired Traffipocalypse. That was special, too.
I am in Las Vegas, NV and we had a partial eclipse, about 72%. I was outside but didn’t have the glasses so I couldn’t look up, but it was still incredible. It is normally very sunny and clear here. It happened to be a bit overcast and rainy right before. Then it got darker. The most noticeable difference was a complete change of atmosphere and it was quiet. Not a breeze, no flicker of a leaf. Then when it was over the leaves blew around my feet. Within minutes, the sun was bright like nothing ever happened.
Hubster had his camera set up and got some good pictures. We were at about 90%. But our photographer son drove up to Wyoming (100%) and got fantastic shots. Wish we could add pictures here. I’ve shared a few of them, plus a couple videos of his setup, on my Facebook page: http://facebook.com/AuthorTerryOdell
As for what it was like here; my biggest takeaway was how much the temperature dropped as the moon crossed in front of the sun.
My husband and I were at the lake during the eclipse, and a delightful young woman went to every beachgoer with welding glass we could look through to safely witness the partial eclipse (60%) while an older gentlemen passed around crackers and dip. Gotta love small town livin’.
Thanks for sharing, Terry! Where we were (Southern California), I walked out of an office building into what looked like late afternoon light. I do remember the last full eclipse, and marveling at the way the birds suddenly took to the trees thinking (evidently) that it was nighttime and time to roost for the night.
That’s a really nice story, Sue. We passed around a device that showed the progress of moon and sun from our position. Not the same as seeing the real McCoy through special glass, however!
Well here in downtown ATL, about 50 of us, including a couple of SVP’s and the Chief Nursing Officer (at the day-job), gathered on the upper level of the employee parking deck, most with “solar glasses,” a few with pinhole boxes, and yours truly here all geeked out with a small telescope and tripod (to observe indirectly – and it was a hit, BTW).
We dined on Sun Chips and Moon Pies (sorry, no RC Cola), and watched the street lights and building signs come on and the sky and shadows get a funky greenish tint.
A rooftop at neighboring GA State had a similar crowd.
It got noticeably cooler, and even after it peaked at 97%, cool breezes still blew gently from the southwest for about 10 minutes or so.
It was all over, for all intents and purposes, by 2:50 and like the end of a New Year’s Eve celebration, we filtered back to the real world, let down that it was over, but glad to have been a part of it.
I live in Greenville, SC where we got to enjoy the total eclipse. It was worth the hype and any hassle it took to get here. When the sun was blacked out and two o’clock turned to twilight in a moment. It would stop you wherever you were and turn your eyes upward.
The diamond ring was scary because we’ve been told so many times not to look at the sun. It was a day to remember.
We live southeast of Nashville. A town called McMinnville. We were in the Path of Totality. Such an amazing experience! One of the amazing things was just as the sun was coming out of totality it cast a strange group of crescent shaped lights on our garage door. Very cool!
I forgot to add:
Each time i hear about / experience an eclipse, I am always reminded of Mark Twain’s _A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court_, where the Yankee uses his memory of the almanac to use an eclipse to save his hide by promising to return the sun if they’ll set him free…
🙂
Where I live was 95% coverage. Right before the eclipse, a thunderstorm developed right on top of my county so many of the parties were washed out, and many missed seeing it except on TV. It was the only rain in NC at the time. Someone obviously p*ssed off Mother Nature really badly. I had planned to watch it on TV anyways so no problems for me.
From reports all around the 100% area, this eclipse was the economic equivalent of hosting the Superbowl for many communities. People from as far an Europe flew here to watch it.
We had totality here in Carbondale, IL. It was nothing short of miraculous. We live out in the country and were able to watch the whole 2+ hours from our back deck. The most surprising part was that the darkness didn’t approach or recede very gradually. Even when the sun was just a sliver, the light didn’t seem to change all that much.
When totality occurred, it was like a disc slipping into place–it happened all at once, and we suddenly knew we could take our glasses off. Even though we don’t have close neighbors, you could hear people in the distance shouting excitedly. Though we had 2 minutes and 37 seconds here, we could tell immediately when it was time to put the glasses back on. That part was a bit scary. Monstrous, even, in its significance. From extreme joy to extreme danger in an instant.
In all, it was a humbling and unforgettable day. My husband took a time-lapse video of our house, and I cut it down to about 15 seconds. You can see it on my FB page.
I was determined to see the corona so I drove from Seattle (roughly 92%) to a ranch outside Mitchell, OR, where totality lasted a bit over 2 minutes. It was so totally worth it. I took photos, and I’ve seen plenty of photos and videos, but they don’t capture what you really see. The shimmering light, and the shapes, and the reflections on the moon are just not adequately captured in 2D. To use a hackneyed phrase it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It just isn’t. It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s real, and it’s right in front of your face. And then it’s gone. It was so fast I can hardly believe it lasted the time it did. I wanted it back to stare at it some more. I now understand eclipse chasers. You can see the stars during the eclipse, and it sure did get cold, but I was boiling before the end of it.
Post eclipse I experience a Godard-inspired Traffipocalypse. That was special, too.
I am in Las Vegas, NV and we had a partial eclipse, about 72%. I was outside but didn’t have the glasses so I couldn’t look up, but it was still incredible. It is normally very sunny and clear here. It happened to be a bit overcast and rainy right before. Then it got darker. The most noticeable difference was a complete change of atmosphere and it was quiet. Not a breeze, no flicker of a leaf. Then when it was over the leaves blew around my feet. Within minutes, the sun was bright like nothing ever happened.