Today is the solar eclipse day. I happen to live close to the eclipse trail, but from all that I have read, I seemed not interested in taking on the adventure. I will see tons of pictures from my club members and from all over the country, why bother? However, since it is an extraordinary phenomenon, I have to see it with my own eyes. So, I chose to be a spectator than a photographer.
Without any advance preparation, I headed out for my daily walk with my lightweight camera attached with a wild-angle lens. It was a normal sunny morning. Just when I passed through the first section of my regular walk path, I subconsciously looked at the sun and saw a patch of cloud traveling fast towards the sun. Not long after I’d raised my camera, the sun was completely wrapped in the cloud. It was then about 1-1/2 hours before the totality.
The image I took seems to tell me that the Cloud was rushing to say farewell to the Sun before He was totally covered by the Moon. The glorious flare of the Sun colored the Cloud golden.
Without a special filter and telephoto lens, I was aiming to simply take some landscape pictures in the neighborhood. The first picture below was taken at 8:30 am and the second one at 10:18 am when the Sun was almost fully hidden behind the Moon. My location is a bit too south of the center of the trail and I could not observe a perfect Totality. I am posting two pictures in the same location just to show you the Day and Night experience I had. I expected the totality to bring in total darkness, but it was more like a late afternoon before the sun hit the horizon.
My wide angle lens is adequate for me to include the sun and some trees in the scene, but it is not set to show you the Totality. However, I looked at the sun closely in this image, the radial sun rays seemed to become more intense and sharper (compared to the image on the right taken earlier). I guess the light was forced to burst sideways to form the Corona which still provides enough strength of light to shine the earth.
At 10:32 am, the Moon slightly moved to the left, and a small slice of the sunshine was shown on the right. The ground began to get brighter and brighter. On the way home, I felt a golden glow and an unusual calmness that I have never experienced. I pondered what will be like if the sun has dimmed down to the degree of totality and we don’t have that majestic sunshine anymore…
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My grandson, living in Vancouver, saw the partial eclipse. He felt a sudden chill when the sun was blocked. interesting!
Depending on the environment you are in, I believe this feeling is very personal. To me, the golden glow after the totality is somewhat indescribable. Putting down the big lens and focusing on the solar glasses are certainly a good decision I made.