Share any and all eclipse stories!

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Your photo is lovely!
Thanks!

I heard that the moon covered 99.6% of the Sun during the 1984 eclipse. Definitely try for the 2024 total eclipse. The transitions to and from totality are nothing short of astounding.
 
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If you ever get the chance to be in the path of totality, do it! It’s worth all the hassle.

Some buddies and I drove up to middle-of-nowhere Oregon and camped out on some guy’s ranch for a couple nights during last year’s August eclipse. I had done some reading beforehand to get an idea of what to expect since the only eclipses I had experienced prior to that were partial ones. Everyone raved about the drastic change in temperature and light but I assumed they were just exaggerating. It’s no exaggeration! We were in far eastern Oregon and it was like 11:20 in the morning. 105°F. In those 13 minutes it got so dark it looked like it was dawn or dusk, and the temperature dropped by 30°! All the animals around us (both wild and domesticated) were completely losing their minds. After experiencing that up close I can see why our ancient ancestors thought the end was nigh.

One thing I distinctly remember that I wasn’t expecting was the way the sunlight looked immediately after totality. As the moon began to recede and the sun bit by bit became visible again it took on almost a mushroom cloud shape. There was also a rather bright flash of light the moment the moon started to pass.

Unfortunately the only recourse I had to photography was my crummy cell phone camera:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
First time to see an eclipse was early this year in January. We pulled out some chairs onto the front yard to gaze at the moon, also the first time we’ve done that. It was beautiful, and I’m glad I was able to view the eclipse at that time. We tried taking pictures on an ordinary point and shoot camera; you could see that indeed, the moon looked reddish. With the naked eye, it just looked like its usual color.
 
The only time I could have seen a solar eclipse was when I was in London. I was teaching and we opened the curtains to see it but it was so overcast you couldn’t really tell, it was just like the cloud cover got heavier :cry:
 
Yup, during the whole duration of the eclipse, we got to see when it was just starting, and the total eclipse as well.
 
Yes! That’s always my great fear-- to travel somewhere for 8 or 10 hours, and then have cloudy skies during the critical part! (Boo!) I remember there was at least one lunar eclipse I totally missed out on due to clouds; I can’t imagine how disappointing missing a solar eclipse would be.

But I do envy the people who jaunt off to Panama or the Arctic or the very bottom of Chile or somewhere for all those eclipses that hit somewhere away from the major population centers of major countries. 🙂 I’m happy for them to be able to experience this sort of thing over and over and over again!
 
Me, along with my husband, son and a couple of his roommates friends went to the Carmelite Retreat Center in Liberty, TN and got 2m 40sec of totality. The Center is in the middle of nowhere and miles from any streetlights or major highway, so we had ‘dark sky’. It was AMAZING! No photograph can do it justice.

As the sun began to be covered by the moon, the butterflies settled and the birds found their roost. The air began to get cooler - like at sunset. During totality, we saw the horizon in 360 and there were stars that we just don’t see at that time of day. The sunlight danced, shimmered and sparkled. My husband was able to take this photograph - just using a point & shoot camera.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Me, along with my husband, son and a couple of his roommates friends went to the Carmelite Retreat Center in Liberty, TN and got 2m 40sec of totality. The Center is in the middle of nowhere and miles from any streetlights or major highway, so we had ‘dark sky’. It was AMAZING! No photograph can do it justice.

As the sun began to be covered by the moon, the butterflies settled and the birds found their roost. The air began to get cooler - like at sunset. During totality, we saw the horizon in 360 and there were stars that we just don’t see at that time of day. The sunlight danced, shimmered and sparkled. My husband was able to take this photograph - just using a point & shoot camera.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
My friends stayed at a monastery in Nebraska for the eclipse. They invited me to join them, but it was too far from home for us. I thought a monastery would be a wonderful setting to view an eclipse. 😃
 
I saw a 100% solar eclipse over the USA last summer. Absolutely amazing. If you ever plan on seeing a solar eclipse, know that 99.2 and such isn’t enough (the sun doesn’t disappear, it just gets dimmer, I saw comparison photos). If you want to see a hole of darkness in the sky with a glowing halo, it needs to pretty much be 100%. 99.9% might give you a dark hole with a little glow of light in the corner.

Anyway, as to the eclipse itself, again, it was just an amazing sight and lasted for about two minutes. I would travel a few hours to see one again. Even though it was the middle of the day it suddenly felt like late evening. Even the insects and birds that aren’t active during the heat of the day started chirping and calling as if it was late evening.
 
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