Monday, August 21, 2017

Magical eclipse

   We were fortunate enough to live in the path of totality for the solar eclipse.  For weeks that is all we have heard on the local news.  Huge viewing parties and events were planned in the area.  No hotel rooms were available in the county!  I thought about it and then decided not to offer the spare room for rent.  LOL.

  Today came and no clouds in the early morning.  A quick sit on the porch and I knew we would need to add the tall fan for cooling and table for the laptop.  It was very quiet for early morning.....no birds, bees, or chirps.

  By 1 pm it began.  Sir Old Man rigged up a box for me for viewing the projected eclipse.  He had the face shield to use from his welder's set.  We watched a bit of the local news streaming from different events.   The temperature began to drop a little bit, the shadows began to lose their sharp edge, and colors appeared different.  It was eerie.  Like a ripple in the time warp curtain, things were not distinct, and yet they were in the normal place.
 


Sir Old Man suddenly said, "Look".   Glancing down at the deck, I saw spots of sunlight that were the shape of the eclipse stage.  I had heard about the phenomenon.  Normally, light filters thru leaves of the trees or shrubs onto the dark ground/grass/surfaces.  This projection is not round at all, but crescent shaped like the eclipse.  











   Then we walked out onto the larger deck and stepped into a magical scene of crescent shaped areas of sunlight.

   Actually a more fitting description would be mystical.  The total eclipse was quickly approaching, the shadows were much deeper and less defined.  So standing there I felt like I was stepping into space as those tiny slivers of  were sparkling in the deepening dark.








 














 A projection of light on the hand rail.











 



And barely a few seconds later the projection is smaller/thinner.   Total eclipse is coming.









  When the total eclipse happened, it was abrupt as if the light switch was flipped.  One second there were faint shadows lines of the trees on the yard, and the next second they were gone.  The air temp cooled immediately.  Darkness descended all at once.  Through the tree line I could just make out the sunset colors of the sky.




  And Sir Old Man took a photo at totality.  Just to the right of the eclipse, Venus was fully visible and so beautiful .   I stood there in awe, with tears streaming down my face at such a sight.  Complete darkness, no shadows, Venus shining and the sun in corona......at 2:38 pm.

 
   And shadows returned as abruptly as they vanished.   The process began to reverse itself....the crescent shapes flipped as the moon shifted across the face of the sun.   Shadow became sharper, and colors returned to normal.   And birds....the birds began to chirp and sing.  A butterfly flew by.   A most magical mystical experience.
 

13 comments:

Ray and Jeanne said...

Wow! Thanks for the first hand account. We only had the partial eclipse here. I was surprised that it didn't get very dark. ~Jeanne

Quilting Babcia said...

Your photos are so unique and beautiful, I haven't seen any better of the eclipse. We had a partial here, it was evident that it was darker than usual but not nearly as much as we thought it would be with 72% coverage.


sunny said...

Great descriptions! We were only at 82% here, but it was still cool to watch.

Janet O. said...

You described it beautifully, Debbie. We drove 4 hours to get over 2 minutes of totality, and I think you captured the essence of the experience so well.
The traffic was so heavy leaving Idaho, and a wreck caused us to turn around after an hour and reroute. Our 4 hour drive home turned into 8 1/2 hours, but totally worth it. Magical time, indeed!

Gene Black said...

I found it magical also. Your description of "eerie"and like a "ripple in the time warp curtain" fit what I and a friend saw also. We were in the 95% totality band - it never got really dark. But it got dark enough that birds flew to roost and crickets started chirping. A friend that lives close but in a more rural area said the neighbor's rooster started to crow as the eclipse started to pass. Of course, I wish I had been somewhere with totality but it just wasn't to be this time.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Hubby got to see it in Wyoming, but here, we had total cloud cover. I had a pin hole viewer (thanks hubby for making it) but, I could only get light thru it a couple of times, for a couple of seconds only. We were in the 87% area, so, no darkness, either.

Robby said...

You tell the tale well! We were within driving distance of totality, but unmovable events meant we stayed at home. Thanks for sharing your experience, it makes me more determined than ever to experience the next one.

MissPat said...

How cool. We were only partial and I didn't have the solar glasses, so I didn't actually see when the eclipse was overhead. The light did change, but there was also some light cloud cover at times. Anyway we are in the path of the 2024 total eclipse, so, if I'm still around, I may get a chance to see the real thing. I watched on TV (the NASA link kept freezing up), but it just wasn't the same experience. Glad you had the chance to witness it.
Pat

Louise said...

I wept, too, at the beautiful sight. It was cloudy here, but the clouds parted just in time to glimpse the totality. The extra moisture in the air ringed it with rainbows. I was spellbound!

Dana Gaffney said...

That is so cool and I'm glad you got to experience it, we only had partial so it was minor here. Thanks for all of the pictures, I was hoping for some of those weird shadows but didn't see any.

Quilty Constance said...

I'm on the East Coast. Wasn't much to see here at all. So cool! Love your pics.

Mystic Quilter said...

Thanks for sharing your experience of the total eclipse, sounds magical indeed. Of course in New Zealand we just read about it and watched on the news.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

OMG!!! Your crescent moon shadows are amazing!!! Wasn't it just the best experience!!! So fortunate are we to have seen the total eclipse.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...