During a partial eclipse in Southern California circa 1991, the only things noticeable were that the sunlight seemed only slightly dimmer (something what would have gone right past us if we weren't expecting it), but we definitely felt the drop in temperature.
For me it was reminder of how fallible our monkey brains can be. I mean, it should be no different than moving from the sunlight into the shade, right? Nope, totally different. Monkey brain freaked out.
During a partial eclipse in Southern California circa 1991, the only things noticeable were that the sunlight seemed only slightly dimmer (something what would have gone right past us if we weren't expecting it), but we definitely felt the drop in temperature.
Our first eclipse in 1979 was so cold that we could not feel any change in temperature, but we were up high enough to see the shadow below us as it raced toward us.
The people we stayed with in Richland, Washington for '79 planned to go with us to watch the 1991 eclipse in Hawaii but we couldn't make the trip. The went to Hawaii but it was so cloudy they missed it and I don't remember if they mentioned the temperature drop, but with a 7+ minute eclipse you would expect it to be significant.
Another friend was in Baha for the '91 eclipse and said it was truly the event of a lifetime!
Stop Tzar Vladimir the Condemned!
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that it has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --Percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
Why should anyone debate someone who doesn't know the subject? -- AZPaul3
There even seems to be a rapture happening (at about 2:50) in the video.
That sure does look like a rapture. Some of the images are a bit disturbing, but the guitar is pretty good!
Stop Tzar Vladimir the Condemned!
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that it has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --Percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
Why should anyone debate someone who doesn't know the subject? -- AZPaul3
My friend at the University of North Dakota (UND -- we were both stationed at Grand Forks AFB and both working on our BS Computer Science at the time) was an amateur astro-photographer whose prize photos were ones that captured meteors. When I bumped into him at school that day, he told me to come with him. He had loaded his telescope and camera into his car and we sped north towards Winnipeg with me riding shotgun using welder's glass to track the moon's progress across the sun's disk. When I called that it was time, he pulled over to the side of the rode and set up his equipment.
My main memory is of seeing the approaching shadow and the near complete silence during totality.
He gave me a print of one of his photos, which I still have. Right now I'm writing that information down to include with it for my son and my grandsons.
My main memory is of seeing the approaching shadow and the near complete silence during totality.
We had the silence, except for cheering at the instant of totality, but we both imagined a deep, low frequency, humming that we felt viscerally, and a number of the other groups with us on Rattlesnake Mountain said they felt it too. It was completely imaginary, but still added to our own personal experience of this profound event. I didn't feel that during the 2017 eclipse.
Stop Tzar Vladimir the Condemned!
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that it has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --Percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
Why should anyone debate someone who doesn't know the subject? -- AZPaul3
Of course the Buffalo region, always trying to snatch defeat from victory, ("wide right", "13 seconds", "no goal", blizzard of 77 & 22") . . .
The morning started out depressingly with heavy clouds. It looked like it might rain. The overly-optimistic weather forecasters did everything they could to keep the money-gouged tourists in Buffalo. But if the weather forecasters were honest they should have told the city to empty out and go south to the clear Ohio region. However, getting on the thruway yesterday morning with a potential million other motorists was not a good risk.
So I bunkered down at the local park with my tripod, camera, solar glasses, grape soda, cheddar combos, lawn chair and some deep philosophic reading material . . . "Bigg'uns". 50-100 people also showed up, I am happy that I will be sharing this experience communally.
The clouds thinned out just enough for the sun to peek out for a few furtive seconds between cumulus. Okay, maybe this won't be a complete disaster. Like staccato'd images from an animated cartoon, I saw the sun slowly being eaten by the dragon, as the Chinese reported millennia ago. But will the clouds be "so" generous for the 'big reveal'? After an hour of this maddening on-again, off-again strip tease, the last small tip of sun ray disappeared from atop the firey circle. And then . . . darkness. As in . . . nothingness. I've read the totality was gonna be dark like dusk, but the heavy clouds made this darkness appear like midnight. "Um, . . . mister sun, where'd you go?" 5, 10, 15, seconds go by, nothing. Oh crap. I quickly got a big pit in my stomach, "This event is passing me by." Why has my most favorite god, Ra, forsaken me?" Another five seconds go by. Just as my emotion of crestfallen reached its eleventh power, . . . suddenly, THERE IT WAS, the bright ring wrapped around the moon! The crowd cheered loudly! My eye's adjusted to the image. What's that red stuff on the bottom, . . . solar flares? Really? I clumsily took control of the camera, and took a bracketed set of images. A quick look at the histogram showed blown-out highlights, CRAP! This is what I didn't want to do, but now I had to fiddle with the camera. I did one quick re-set, and then told myself, whatever I get, I get, no more chimping. The image continued to disappear and re-appear in the next two-three minutes. It was not a great way to view this event. The strain of it possibly not re-appearing was panic-inducing. But the last minute, I just sat back in my lawn chair and enjoyed this marvelous wonder of nature.
Yeah, totally worth it.
Thanks for your photo tips Tany, considering the pressurized challenges, I did get better than average photos. I've since read that to get really good coronas, one needs to shoot with infra-red. I'll somehow share the photos with the forum.
There is a place called "Frog Orgy Ravine" an hour's drive north from me. It would have been fantastical to hear the spring peepers suddenly chorus during the totality. Well, maybe next time.
Would love, LOVE to see this again. I have friends in Spain and the eclipse will be there in 2026? Hmmm.
Congratulations! Everyone I have ever talked to that have seen it once, want more!
Stop Tzar Vladimir the Condemned!
What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that it has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --Percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq
Why should anyone debate someone who doesn't know the subject? -- AZPaul3
My Imgur photo isn't being automatically linked and shown on the forum. Not sure why, you'll have to click to the image, sorry.
[ I added a width and that seemed to fix the problem. But it shouldn't need a width, so I've got a possible bug to look into. --Admin]
I think the heavy cloud cover reduced the corona effect.
My older Nikon camera was too slow to capture, then process, then save bracketed/burst-mode-picts of very dark images. I liked the effect the rim-lit clouds had on the over-exposed images, but then the moon rim light was too overexposed. However, when I tried to stack all of the bracketed images into one image in an app called Bracketeer, the large movement of the moon and clouds in between exposures made it unsuccessful.
If there is a next time, I would: 1. Use faster ASA1000 2. Use an even bigger, heavier, and more stable tripod 3. Use mirror lock-up to ensure the very least amount of camera vibration 4. Capture more extreme bracketed exposures 5. Use larger lens, 500-1000mm
However, because the total eclipse event is so incredibly short, I think I can improve the experience by not using a camera at all.
What's that red stuff on the bottom, . . . solar flares?
quote:During the recent total solar eclipse, you may have glimpsed what looked like explosive solar flares bursting from the sun after its fiery corona briefly came into view. But it turns out this was not the case. There were no solar flares during the eclipse.
"There are many (incorrectly) reporting that a solar flare was visible during the total solar eclipse," Ryan French, an astrophysicist at the National Solar Observatory in Colorado, wrote on the social platform X. "This is sadly untrue, and the bright feature seen by millions was actually a prominence. These are longer-lived plasma structures, and not explosive like flares."
Unlike solar flares, which eject plasma as they explode from the sun's surface, prominences are plasma structures that remain connected to the solar surface for days or weeks, normally forming a large loop, according to NASA. Prominences can eventually snap and fling plasma into space like a CME, but this didn't happen during the eclipse.
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