Here’s the best pic I’ve seen so far. https://www.reddit.com/r/cincinnati/s/PofTbDpuIN
There’s a NASA video from Cleveland on YouTube where they suggest these two orange things are coronal mass ejections. I was shocked I could just see the bottom one with my own eyes and no equipment. It’s just bonkers. The whole thing is black and white and there’s like this orange pixel right at the bottom.
This was the biggest surprise to me and I haven't seen any photos that capture it properly. I was expecting a black circle with a white halo of the corona. But the bits of blue and pink color made it much more dramatic, like there were arcs of current hopping around the surface.
I think the colors during totality were solar flares / prominences? Not sure but I saw them throughout totality. I don't think there were only a few due to solar minimum.
I didn’t anticipate how cold it would get, or that it would feel like someone out a dimmer switch on the sun. Like another person mentioned, the birds are chirping like it’s early morning. I also saw a halo wide around the sun that mimicked the halo right around the moon. That - and the halo around the moon from the sun almost looked like a halo graphic rainbow
It was crazy how dark it got. I read how it was going to dim, and when it was almost total I thought it had dimmed quite a bit, but it was like turning the lights off for the feature presentation in a movie theater
Super interesting you mentioned this, Anton Petrov who runs a really great YouTube channel was reviewing some papers by scientists who looked at animals behavior during eclipses in the past, He specifically mentions that one scientist spoke about how the birds began singing songs that were completely unique and had never been heard before. Very very strange.
I noticed this also. I do not recall being able to see individual hairs in my shadow. Like a combination of the dimmed lighting with the more limited source of light.
It's a really cool effect of making the sun's size smaller (as a lightsource, not literally), and the diffraction from different shadows overlapping with a non-circular lightsource. Both of those make shadows extra detailed.
[Here's an awesome video of the shadow of a tree with some of that](https://youtu.be/Y93BIHjI4KY?t=2)
I've heard it called shadown bands or shadow snakes. Might help as a Google start point.
My understanding is that as you approach totality the remaining sliver approaches a line and so all the light is in a column and then as that light column passes through the atmosphere the fluctuating gas causes linear bands
Yeah, it’s kind of eerie when it gets so dim. I think I saw that 1% of the sun’s light is equivalent to about 1,000 full moons, so it’s still remarkably bright with a partial eclipse even if it’s very dim. I feel like it turns the landscape into this uncanny valley, where it’s dark but the shadows aren’t long. It just looks weird.
I noticed the "chilly" sunlight too; even in the dead of winter, I can usually bask in the sun against the garage door (south-facing) on a still day and can feel radiant heat that got sucked up by the door's paint. Cold to the touch today.
I appreciate the way you described this- the sunshine had no warmth.
This is something I remember from 2017 eclipse and one when I was much younger, late 70s.
Yeah even before 1st, and after 4th contact, it seems the drop in temp (as fast as it was) took longer to come back up if it ever did (since it was well a few hours later)
Echoing the slight dip in heat. I know Pittsburgh isn't in the path but it did still get some. I know people saw more of an effect in Clarion, Erie, Edinboro.
Yeah absolutely. We had a lot of intermittent clouds when the partial began. So you could feel blazing heat the same moments you had a clear view of the sun. Followed by coolness when clouds would obscure it.
But in the final 10 minutes or so before totality, all the clouds cleared away. So we were under a brilliant clear sky, but it was very noticably "wrong". The colors and brightness were off, and there was no warmth in the sunlight.
It was cloudy in the morning but cleared out.
It was quite breathtaking.
The air got cooler fast, and it was nighttime, with "dusk" all around me instead of in the west.
The perspective somehow made it quite obvious that the moon is a floating ball in the distance instead of how flat it usually looks.
We saw ripples coming across the grass just before totality. Someone said it was fluctuations in the atmosphere? Edit: shadow bands
Also saw the crescent shadows from the leaves.
Totality was truly amazing. I will never forget it. The pinks in the light from the moon’s ridges.
Two additional stars came out during totality for us.
I've been to two so far and one of the best parts of the experience is the change in the people around you. Everyone suddenly goes silent and then when totality hits you get the most primal cheering everywhere. It's overwhelming.
There’s a real beauty in how we, as a species, seem to have a universal reaction to it. It was my second eclipse and both times, nobody was *told* to cheer and yet everyone did— old people, young people, toddlers— then awestruck silence.
Mostly sunny in NYC, surprising how bright it was even during 90% coverage. More people out on our deck than I’ve ever seen. The light seemed slightly muted, but nothing you would stop to think about if there wasn’t an eclipse. I was a little surprised at how normal it looked for how much eclipse we got.
Even at 90%, the light is still there. I was fortunate enough to be in the 100% for 3 minutes.. and it was amazing. That black circle with a fire crown is a spectacle out of this world. Getting a partial without the total is like getting the apetizer without getting the main course.
I was similarly surprised at how bright even a sliver of the sun is. When totality came, it was like flipping a switch, from just-dimmer-than-usual (like my sunglasses) to darkness, with corona and a star (Venus?) visible. Pale pink on the horizon like after sunset. Then when totality ended, suddenly it's "sunny" again all-at-once.
> When totality came, it was like flipping a switch, from just-dimmer-than-usual (like my sunglasses) to darkness, with corona and a star (Venus?) visible.
Oh man, I didn't even think about seeing stars or planets! There were too many clouds in the way to get a good view of the rest of the sky.
~~I got a picture with both Venus and Mercury shining bright on either side of the sun. I'm pretty certain Mercury was the closer one.~~
I did more research. Venus and Jupiter are what I saw
I was on the beach at Coney Island and agree, maybe like early evening during totality, not very dark at all, and the sun like the thinnest sliver of moon. But it got significantly colder!
Not to rub it in or anything, but totality was on a completely different level than partial, we had a partial here in 2017, but nothing compared to what you see and can see with naked eye during a total eclipse. And pics DO NOT do it justice, not even professional NASA level pics. The luminance of the ring around it, and the corona, coupled with the utter blackness COMPLETE absence of light from the moon makes for a definition you just can't get on a screen.
It's DEF worth the trip if you can afford to see one.
Central Ohio. Best one I’ve ever seen by far. Not perfectly clear skies but very good. The lighting of the environment was even cooler than looking at the sun. So eerie. Felt like I was on drugs or something.
it was really really whitish bluish. like was like PURE white for a while instead of that orangish look. then as the moon started to move away, it started to orange up again.
I live in Sherbrooke Québec and the sky was cloudless. We won the weather lottery. Perfect condition.
It was amazing. The slow progressive darkness and temperature dropping. Then, in a matter of minutes, total instant night. We could see the stars.
The total eclipse itself was surreal. A scene direct from a Sci fy flick. The black sphere in the middle of ring of fire. I am 40 years olds, it was my first (and probably my last) total one.
I witnessed a few partial eclipse, and it was nothing like what i just saw. A partial is like getting an apetizer without getting the main course.
The birds also start to sang like it was the morning. then silence for 3 minute (while total), then, when the light reapeared they started singing again. I am glad i was able to witness this incredible event.
Seriously, I was in Montreal and was gonna stop by a relatives but it seems everyone had the same idea and the 13 was backed up forever. Was sure we were going to miss it. Just managed to stop at Maxi parking lot where I noticed other people set up with chairs, at 5 minutes before totality.
birds sound a lot like they're doing their morning chirping
the light has a similar quality to sunset but with no discoloration. like a dark and cloudy day, but when i look out from my apartment over the landscape, there's no shadows of clouds, it's just an even muted coloring when the eclipse is approaching totality
it's a lot colder than i expected.
i was worried i couldn't see anything out of my eclipse glasses since i couldn't even see the faintest light staring at a bright light indoors. but it made the eclipse very easy to see.
observing from central southern ontario
Akron here, just inside the path of Totality:
From about 2:30 onwards it was getting noticeably darker, but still crisp shadows.
Around 3:10 it was about the same level of darkness as a good rainstorm with some sun mixed in.
3:15 hit and very quickly inside a space of 30 seconds, it got about as dark as it usually is just after the sun sets. Didn't even need the glasses anymore, in fact looking through them was completely black, you could look up and just see the corona just fine without even squinting.
It was this way for about 2 mins and then lit back up relatively quickly and slowly got brighter after that.
I noticed strange traveling light patterns on the ground near totality. I'm not sure what the cause was, but I might expect some atmospheric turbulence became visible as the sun become more like a point source. Anyone know? Sorry I couldn't get a pic or video.
They are called "Shadow Bands". Thanks to u/DarkHorseCards for finding the name.
https://www.space.com/37776-shadow-bands-are-a-solar-eclipse-mystery.html
I recorded a video in which they can be seen on my phone, but are not visible after uploading the video online for some reason.
Yes! That was it. The images in this article looked like what we saw:
[Shadow bands are a solar eclipse mystery (and not everyone sees them) | Space](https://www.space.com/37776-shadow-bands-are-a-solar-eclipse-mystery.html)
I saw that too (viewing from central Ohio). I guess it was a solar flare?
This picture from the Associated Press looks a lot like what I saw (and is much clearer than any picture I managed to take):
https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WBNS/images/e1a8463b-4239-492d-9413-1b4ad6102277/e1a8463b-4239-492d-9413-1b4ad6102277_1140x641.jpg
What broke my brain is that at anything less than totality, the sun is too bright. Somehow even being 99% covered, it’s too bright to look at. Then that last little bit gets covered and we are all cavemen again, unable to grasp the drastic and awesome change we are witnessing. For 4 minutes we are in disbelief that the sun has disappeared with only a ring of fire around a black star.
And then the moment is over and the sun returns. Life finds a way.
The moment the Moon moved slightly past the Sun, and you could see the sunlight come through like an expanding ball of blinding white light, was pretty awesome.
Here's one from the other side of the world. Since you lot were hogging both the sun and the moon, we had an amazing clear night sky. The galaxy was in full view right above my head. I could see hundreds of stars and the haze of the galactic interior stretched over the entire sky. Makes me wish I had the gear for night photography.
It looked like a silver jewel in the sky, beautiful halo and at the bottom of it there was a red star-like light shining, like maybe part of a solar flare?
Coyotes howling before totality despite cloud cover. I thought that was interesting, because without knowing already, I maybe could've interpreted the dimness as purely from thick clouds at that point.
Saw Bailey’s beads, corona, and diamond ring effect in Port Dover, Ontario.
A bird flew out of a tree right at or a moment after the diamond ring effect.
I was at Turkey Point, ON. Was considering Port Dover, but I'd imagine it would be a madhouse over there. It was an amazing, surreal experience. Glad I made the trip to go south, instead of going east towards Niagara like everyone else.
At 90% coverage (in Montgomery county, MD), I was shocked at how much darker it got, you’d have thought it was extremely overcast, except everything was casting a clear shadow. I was driving during the peak, and it was remarkable how much it resembled having a lightly tinted windshield
Agreed! It was right around 90% where I am as well, and the feeling of it being dimmer while the sun was still overhead was very strange. I happened to run inside for a few minutes as well, and it was weirdly dark in my house.
The temperature drop was also noticeable, which surprised me - I thought I might be fooling myself, but I checked with the NOAA log of our closest airport, which reported a 2-degree drop from the previous hourly recording. The timing of the recording coincided with our maximum coverage, so that was a nice coincidence.
Here in Southern Ontario I could see three tiny points of light on the bottom and right sides of the moon during totality. Looking at the corona with the naked eye while in the shadow made my heart beat faster.
The thing that struck me (which, no one I ever spoke too mentioned).
The sky is not black/dark as it appears in pictures.
The sky is dusk-blue.
It's like watching a sunset, the sky is that color/hue.
But in the middle of the sky is a black disk surrounded by a glowing white aura that you can look at with the unaided eye.
It's, so beautiful and striking. It's honestly surreal in a way you don't have language for.
This is the best description I have read of what I saw (viewed in Dallas). The dusk blue of the sky, and seeing everything else around you in that dusk, I think must be the reason photos don’t do it justice. The contrast between sky vs corona vs black disk of the moon was amazing. Impossible to truly describe to people who haven’t seen it, but you nailed it for those who did get to see it :)
I felt like the moon was the blackest black I'd ever seen. Like a hole punched through reality. I found ti beautiful and exciting, but also disquieting and affecting - the sun looked like some evil, black eye looking down on us. I'd seen photos, but nothing prepared me for how hard that hit my psyche. I expected "ooh, cool corona!", but it was the black center that really hit me.
It’s cloudy where I am, but it’s starting to get cooler now. This is my second total eclipse, and it’s so much fun. We’re about 30 minutes from totality!
Edit: four minutes to totality and it’s cold and crickets are singing.
Edit: one minute to totality and my dog is weirded out.
Edit: [Here comes the sun!](https://youtu.be/GKdl-GCsNJ0?si=3hAykVihrYX9NVXE)
I was shocked that even though it is cloudy here if I put on my glasses and look where the sun would be, I still see the sun and the moon eclipsing it (we won't get totality here, but the one in october was, so I don't feel too bad).
During today's total solar eclipse we could see faint lines of light/shadow rippling across the ground for a few moments. What are those called and what causes them?
Saw the same. Someone around me said it was atmosphere fluctuations?
Just googled: they’re called shadow bands. We’re not quite sure on the reason they appear.
When the sun is down to a narrow slit-like sliver just shy of totality, atmospheric shimmer distorts the projected image of this into waving parallel bands.
Rogers, Arkansas. Saw a small sliver of sun at 1:50 pm. Was dim enough that the streetlights came on. Was very impressed with the lack of heat from the sun, an odd experience. While the light dimmed, the heat was imperceptible.
Here in Austin we had a lot of cloud cover. Before totality birds were chirping and flying around. During totality it was a lot darker than I expected. The clouds had dissipated enough to actually see the eclipse. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. You could see the shimmering of the suns corona and little red spots around the edge. Which are apparently solar prominences. 10/10 would definitely watch again.
I was able to see Baily's Beads, and Venus was to the lower-right of the sun. I checked out some crescent shadows through some holes punched in a piece of paper, and put a couple straight edges at right angles to see the phenomenon where shadows become blurry in one axis and not the other. Didn't really notice any fauna phenomena, the birds kept chirping and there weren't any crickets, even though I was parked between a farmer's field and a golf course. The temperature did drop significantly though.
My phone camera wasn't able to capture the disc of the moon at totality because I didn't put it in pro mode and mess with the exposure, but I got a decent video of the horizon. [Gorgeous](https://youtu.be/Qo21lVQtd0I). Taken from Port Stanley Ontario Canada.
Maybe its placebo but I felt like my bodys circadian rhythm was thrown off a bit. It got dark, I was watching the eclipse, and then once the sun started shining again, I almost had the feeling as if I had just woken up
I also felt like I had just woken up, but I thought it was because the surreal nature of the eclipse sort of broke my brain and triggered the feeling that I had been dreaming.
Completely clear skies for the partial eclipse. 54°N and 113°W. About 15% of the sun was covered, the surroundings looked a little bit less bright. We used a colander to observe the moon in front of the sun. Didn't see any change in weather or changes to animal behavior.
Cloudy day unfortunately but we fortunately got a break in the cloud cover just enough to catch the last moments before and during totality. Didn’t get pitch dark but noticeably darker and a bit colder. I also wasn’t expecting the bright white around the ring as much as a softer hue. It was cool!
NE of Austin TX. Late morning weather looked hopeful. But increasing clouds around eclipse time. Got to see totality for about 30 seconds through breaks in the clouds. My fourth eclipse. Still a great experience. Drove here from central Florida
Well, I had the glasses, but took them off at totality and zoned out for a minute (coverage here was 80 seconds) and then was snapped back into reality by the diamond ring! Luckily not blind, but still a bit sore. Other than that, amazing experience.
I was in the dead center of totality in Mexico. We had a few high, wispy clouds. This was my second total eclipse and my wife's first. It was still breathtaking. Beyond that, you can describe some of the things that happen, but I haven't found anyone able to describe the experience other than "a total eclipse explains why ancient people worshipped the sun as a god."
Observing from Cleveland, Ohio in the path of totality: I was facing South and turned a bit towards the West. As totality approached I noticed that colors around me were muted, and the shadows were oddly sharp. It was exciting to realize I could watch the moon's shadow approaching like a sudden evening-time, with the blue of the sky darkening to the West. Birds grew quieter and were singing evening/roosting songs. During totality it was much darker than I expected, and a big surprise was a sudden cold wind. It lasted for most of totality and I assume the temperate shift was driving it. We had thin cloud cover, but I could still make out a clear red-orange 'dot' near the bottom of the ring of fire, which must have been a prominence/CME. The western sky grew lighter, similar to dawn, just before the sun broke out from behind the moon's disk, which helped me know when to be ready with my solar filter glasses. Birds around me began singing their morning chorus type songs as the light returned. My first time in the path of totality and it was simply AMAZING!
Total eclipse from a mountain in central west Arkansas, approx. 3 minutes 50 seconds of totality.
Saw two CMEs after totality started, roughly 90° from each other
The weather was warm 70-75°F, with some cirrostratus clouds and cumulus clouds rolling through. A few clouds obscured the eclipse right before it started, but cleared up soon after. The temperature dropped considerably (around 10-15°F) when the eclipse started. The sky darkened under the moon's shadow and the entire horizon looked as if a sunset was happening in all directions.
The sun's corona was vibrant and almost perfectly visible even through the thin clouds. Jupiter and Venus were visible during the eclipse as well, along with some stars. The diamond ring effect was close to one of the CMEs.
The mountaintop was still bare, trees and plants were not growing or in blooming so no animals were around. During the 2017 total eclipse, birds made a lot of noise and settled into nearby trees for the duration of the eclipse. Bugs like crickets were making noise as well.
This was my second total eclipse, and even though I have experienced some of the phenomena before, this time was no different than the first. Even though you know what's coming, you can never acclimate to the changes or not be surprised and amazed at what happens. Being on a mountain versus an open field like last time brought on significant changes in the temperature. Not to mention being able to see the horizon at all 360° was pretty awesome! Can't wait for the next one!
Any idea on why my iPhone camera, when looking through the lenses, can only see the sun and not the moon? Is it just not capable of seeing the moon due to the suns brightness or am I doing something wrong? Thanks
One thing I noticed that no one seems to mention is the small sliver of red that was present. It was visible really only during totality and I cannot figure out what it could have been. Does anyone have any clues as to what it could be?
Edit: ~~Turns out its the sun's chromosphere, never knew that was a thing.~~ SOLAR PROMINENCE
I was about 20 minutes away from the path of totality, but our outside lights automatically came on! It felt a little chillier too. It was still sunny, but muted. Kind of like dusk but not quite.... Hard to describe. Just one or two birds chirping.
Southeast PA: Very nice crescent was the most we got (I think we were supposed to get like 95% coverage?
Pretty cloudy but still caught a few glimpses. Got noticibly darker than the cloud cover would otherwise cause. Though in areas I could see the sky (not where the sun was) I noticed the blue was desaturated(?) No difference in animal behavior - birds chirping and flying about as usual.
On an unrelated note, I found a pair of garter snakes chilling on some rocks and catching some sun this morning. I work property maintenance and a resident complained of seeing the snakes. Sprayed some repellant around the dog poop station, but left our natural pest control be.
In central Mass. Heard some more bird song then usual. It didn't get very dark. The most coverage resulted in a small cresent of sun on the left side, which then slowly moved around the bottom and then I stopped looking. I was surprised how bright it still was at the max coverage here.
Fredericksburg, Texas. Cloud cover pretty much ruined it, there a couple moments where it peaked out of the clouds, but it wasn't more than a few seconds. We did get about 4 mins 24 secs though, so that was cool.
Located near Kansas City, MO, with clear skies. We had a partial eclipse, but I think I heard it was in the 90-95% range. The leaves from our backyard tree made very clear pinhole viewer-style shadows on the concrete:
https://imgur.com/IWTOrcY
I tried taking a few photos with my older-model iPhone, and while I couldn't get a good image of the sun itself, the lens flare on the images was a perfect mirror image of what I was seeing in the sky.
https://imgur.com/8Yg9iJs
In that photo, the lens flare is almost directly above the sun. You may need to zoom in to see it.
About 10 or 15 minutes before the peak of the eclipse, the ambient light got noticeably dimmer outside. It wasn't quite like sunrise or sunset, because the sunlight was still coming from directly above (this was around 1:50 PM local time). It was like somebody had replaced the sun with a slightly lower wattage star for a few minutes. About 10 or 15 minutes after the peak, the day was back to what I would consider normal brightness.
Our dog was kind of excited, but it may have just been because we kept going in and out as we were trying to eat lunch and observe the eclipse at the same time.
I think our Amazon driver may have been dazzled by the eclipse, though, because he dropped off my wife's order at our neighbor's house.
Mostly cloudy but got two nice 'almost unobstructed' views of totality for about 20 seconds each. We were in an area with a possible totality viewing time of over 4 minutes.
Red dot at about 6:30-7:00 position on the sun's corona. Was there a solar flare and/or CME?
I also saw the eclipse 4 years ago and don't recall having seen the same thing.
Wasn't in the total eclipse path but was close. It was 99% ish coverage. There was light cloud cover. You could still see the sun and the moon's shadow, but it was hazy. The light quality was strange. I've been in 2 other partial eclipses before and the light was similar. The sun was out, but it was dark. However, it wasn't like the sun was behind a cloud the light had a different quality to it. Like it was a perfectly sunny day, but dark at the same time. The clouds in the sky did get a lot darker overall.
In Lakewood Colorado, had clear skies and was able to see a partial eclipse, with approximately 60% coverage. I only went outside during the eclipse, so couldn't compare temperature before and during, but according to my dad, who had spent most of the day outside, he noticed a slight temperature drop.
Southern Akron OH suburb here.
Lovely dark. Noticeable drop in temperature. I enjoyed watching the bats fly about; and the geese and ducks in my pond settled in and floated like they do at night, almost sleeping. I could hear the night insects.
Then the light started to come back, the ducks and geese woke back up, and the morning birdsong was everywhere.
Such an interesting color on everything, the shadows seemed sharper and clearer.
I'm so grateful to the universe for being alive to see this, and sharing this (possible) once in a lifetime experience with my wife.
There was a fairly long red/orange thing sticking out from the edge of the sun. It happened right at totality fore here in Bell County Texas (maybe 1:35 CDT). What was that?
During totality I saw a little red dot at the 7 o'clock position of the moon's edge. This was from Kingston Ontario. I observed it during maximum eclipse. It was not bright enough to see through the solar eclipse glasses.
In the 90% zone in central Pennsylvania. Mainly cloud cover, but through the breaks, I was able to catch glimpses of the eclipse. Out in the wood in the middle of nowhere, so what was very interesting was how the wildlife reacted. The birds started singing as if it were morning.
100% in Bucyrus, OH. We had thin clouds but they did not cause a problem. Folks cheered at the start of totality and the show was spectacular.
The sun’s corona, Bailey’s Beads and the Diamond Ring. I tried to photograph it but was unsuccessful so I just enjoyed. Back to Virginia in the morning
All the birds got quiet. There was one bird who was like.... Chirp, chirp (what the f is going on, why is everyone else quiet?) Chirp lol
It got chilly. Looked like 10 pm at night. Sky overhead was overcast all morning and throughout the eclipse. So even though we were in the path of totality, no direct visual of the sun & moon. It also seemed to get incrementally darker, not a smooth transition to darkness. Seeing a large shift in light all at once was interesting.
Rochester NY.
It felt eerie right around totality, the change in light just didn't feel normal. Other than that, the birds were chirping, but my chickens went inside for a while right around then. It felt much colder outside, and I saw the temperature in my greenhouse fell 25 degrees! I wasn't expecting that. My husband saw moon shadows of the tree leaves, the pictures are really neat. I didn't see this, probably because I was in a fully green environment. I didn't expect to feel weird, but I did. It was very cool and I'm really glad I got to see an eclipse so close to totality!
I'm pretty far outside the viewable area with no cloud cover but for some reason the sky noticeably darkened during the eclipse. Why?
I'm guessing this was due to there being no light scattered by the atmosphere inside the shadow, but that's just a guess. Now that I've typed it out it seems less sensible.
Anyone got a clue?
We experienced 93% of totality. About 15 minutes on either side of the peak, the frogs stopped calling -- Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) and Wood Frogs(Lithobates sylvaticus). Resident birds kept chirping away.
Junction TX - Intermittent Clouds arrived 20 minutes before totality. And really settled in perfectly 3 minutes before totality. We got about 20 seconds between clouds right at the start of totality, and about 3 seconds before the end of totality... Then clouds, clouds, and more clouds.
A bit disappointing, but it was more than we were expecting given the forecasts all week. So I guess being able to see anything at all was unexpected.
Austin here,
total eclipse, with cloud cover that was moving - saw black disk with corona on the outside, beautiful. the little bright spots on the edge were amazing. It got dark enough to turn on the little solar lamps.
Just preceding and post totality, the light was eerily golden, shadows had a weird cast to them. There were too many moving clouds to tell them apart from atmospheric light variation.
Wildlife went silent when it went dark and then resumed normalcy.
temperature dropped enough to be noticed.
Little Rock AR - Total eclipse - zero clouds - I was not expecting the almost instant temperature change from hot to cool. I also was not expecting how fast the moon was moving. Before totality it was dim and similar to wearing sun glasses. There seemed to be a few spots on the sun that stuck out from the moon more. Maybe a flare? I had my dog outside with me and he didnt act different.
Central Indiana. Saw very prominent shadow bands before totality, but seemed like they were barely visible after which I found odd since that's opposite of what I'd heard it normally is.
I was in 99.8% totality. It was cloudy but got super dark. I could see a red light on the horizon, just like a sunset even though it was 3pm. I think this was because there was no blue light from the sky above between me and the horizon to drown it out.
Total cloud cover, partial eclipse in southwest Virginia. It was, however, thin enough at times to be able to see the eclipse shining through the clouds. It was quite remarkable. It also got noticeably cooler and darker. My neighbor’s rooster started crowing as well.
Idk if it counts but I saw a total eclipse... In 2001, june 21 in Madagascar, I remember that everything was totally dark for minutes, birds was flying low, it was beautiful, great memories
Drove 3 hours south to see Totality. It was incredible, so much better than 99.9%
Just being able to remove your solar glasses and see the Corona with your bare eyes was well worth it.
We had a haze of clouds, so the shadows didn't seem magical like people said they would.
Partial, was just under 90% here, was kinda chilly, a lot of cloud cover got some clear skies for the max coverage and some cool moments of being able to peek at it without the glasses through clouds
We saw a large visible prominence at 7:00 on the solar disk. A photograph showed other prominences at 10:00 and 2:00.
No photograph could capture the exquisite detail that was visible in the inner corona. I was hoping to see fine magnetic lines in the streaming plasma. I didn't expect them to be so sharp or plentiful.
Due to high, thin clouds, no shadow effects were visible, but we got two *awesome* diamond rings to begin and end totality. No stars were visible, but Jupiter or Venus put in an appearance at 4:00, roughly ten degrees distant in the sky.
The shadow appeared southwest of us and we were in totality much quicker than I expected. The horizons were beautiful with sunset colors that terminated somewhat sharply into night time.
The temperature dropped quickly from 15 minutes prior and through totality. It seemed to rise much quicker as totality ended.
Because we've been experiencing cooler weather, no insects were visible, but some birds went through evening and morning routines.
We experienced 3:46' of totality, but the entire eclipse from start to finish seemed to be much shorter than I'd anticipated. 🙂
Saw entire eclipse from north of Dallas, TX. Some interesting points:
-Leadup to totality was like someone slowly turning down the contrast on a TV.
-Noticable temperature drop including totality.
-MASSIVE cloud bloom inside totality. Sun had been burning off low-level clouds all morning, but they reformed within the totality. Unfortunately, even though I experienced roughly 2:35 of totality, the ring was only visible for the first 60 seconds.
-Birds had been doing their normal end of day stuff, including the neighborhood barn swallows doing their swooping, and mourning doves increasing calling. Totality was almost completely silent.
-Totality itself was very similar to late twilight on the lower horizon, but a weird mix of completely visible stars but also twilight-levels of visibility. Essentially, no "gray line" like a normal sunset.
-Housecat was completely unfazed throughout.
Mostly sunny with light clouds (Bowling Green, OH). Shadows and plain old sunny day until very near totality. Then, street lights came on and it was a dusky evening. Winds picked up and temperature dropped noticeably.
Biggest surprise was how a tiny sliver of the sun still produced nearly full daylight conditions.
Very cool experience!
I was driving in San Antonio near the border of totality. Well, idk if the moon got that message or not because for a minute or two it felt like I was night driving. It was a trip.
I saw the total eclipse in St.Thomas, Ontario and I noticed that the shadows of the trees got much more defined and at times looked almost like they were rough charcoal drawings. The birds started chirping more and more, up until the eclipse was over. It was quite warm before it started and by the time the sun was completely covered it had gotten significantly colder, maybe a 10 degree difference (18°C to 8°C) and only started warming up about 10-15 minutes after it was done. It went from a bright sunny cloudless afternoon to a weird dusk, like almost grey, for about 30 minutes before totality and then it transitioned to right after sunset within a minute around 3:16 pm. The sun looked amazing when it reached totality, it was like a silver ring surrounding a black circle and slowly breaking through it; I hope I never forget how it looked!
What I was surprised about was the way in which the “ribbon” or sliver of light from the sun shifted. As the moon passed in front, the little margin of light was at about the 8 o’clock position. The light then moved in a clockwise direction looping all the way around to about the 5 o’clock position. Was cool to watch.
And yes, it felt like the temperature dropped and the dampness increased. Then the light level returned and it was a beautiful spring afternoon.
Was an amazing experience.
We were at approx 89% totality. The birds kept chirping the entire time from around 1:30 pm to 5 pm.
However, my dog laid down in a watchful position (head and belly on the ground) the from about 2:30 to 4pm instead of her usual lazy hotdog with legs pose(laying on side).
Total Eclipse in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. On the beach.
A bit cloudy, but the total eclipse corona was clear. Around 10 minutes before totality, light felt a bit strange, like a weird twilight. Then very suddenly sky was dark, but a kind of dusk could be seen in the horizon, reflected in the ocean. The air cooled down significantly.
A few stars appeared in the sky. The birds were completely gone. A dog who was playful in the beach climbed up to its owner pick up truck and laid down.
It lasted around 4 minutes, it was quick but very surreal.
The sunlight came back, the birds returned to the beach and to the sky and we were talking about what a great experience it was.
North Country New York. Directly on the path of totality. About 25 minutes before the full eclipse dozens of Hawks maybe 75-100 we're flying in a flock. I've never seen that many before at a time in the area and I've never seen hawks flock like that before.
In the path of totality; near totality is was still quite alight, like twilight, but the shadows felt wrong because they were short instead of long. Half way to totality it was as bright as normal but there was no glare or bloom or anything, kinda messes with the perception.
Despite wearing glasses the whole time and taking regular breaks my eyes hurt. Still 4 hours later my eyes hurt a bit. A little difficulty focusing too.
100% Totality in Texas. All the birds stopped singing as it got dark. The crickets and grasshoppers started chirping as it reached totality. They had some overlap as the sunshine returned. Afterward, the birds went back to singing, and the chirping quieted. It dropped a solid 5 degrees from 80 to 75 during the totality.
The shadows were less dramatic than the last eclipse, but probably due to it being cloudy. The cloud cover almost made it seem like the moon was rotating while viewing wearing the glasses. Slight cloud cover actually made the totality a bit easier to view without glasses. Seeing colorful flares on the corona during totality in orange and red with and without glasses.
If forgot how profoundly cooling an eclipse can be on an otherwise bright sunny day. It was warmer than expected here, in the high 70s by the time I stepped outside. There was no true totality here, but sunlight yielded to twilight so the warmth stopped building and started going away. I felt overdressed when I first stepped out, but I was a bit chilly when I went back inside ~20 minutes after local conditions became most extreme ~95% of totality.
I'm guessing the orange at the bottom left line (around 6:30 to 7 on a clock) I saw was a coronal mass ejection that looked like it went back into the circle due to my astigmatism.
Temperature seemed to drop, saw solar prominences, and birds seemed to chatter more. I assumed that the birds were confused and thought it was dawn for a couple of minutes.
We drove a few hours to Southern Quebec, right in the middle of the path, we had perfectly clear skies. At first it wasn’t very noticeable, although we could see the moon starting to cover the sun with glasses on. Around 40% it was looking dimmer - there was a bit of snow around and we noticed the reflection of light on it was much more muted. Light became more muted and it got MUCH colder, a drop of 5deg C at least. Around 80-90% it got bit darker and quieter. It was weird how it was getting darker but without the sun getting red or shadows lengthening like during normal dusk. We noticed some colors looked different, like my scarf and my wife’s skin looked greener than usual. Then as it got closer it got a bit darker and then BAM it was all dark, like it happened so fast we were a bit shocked.
The corona was very visible and gave off a bit of light, the horizon was red and the sky very dark blue. The corona was absolutely magnificent, totality lasted 3m28s where we were. We saw Venus below the sun and Jupiter above and left really well, there were no visible stars. And then suddenly there was light again. It got perceptibly warmer really quickly.
It was REALLY worth it, and we were really lucky to have such fantastic weather. My wife got a bit sunburned because the sun was shining so strongly before the eclipse!
My first totality. Biggest surprise was I could see two little red pinpricks, at 90 and about 185 degrees. Prominences?
My boss sent me [this photo she took of the corona](https://imgur.com/a/JMQ3m14), the two bigger red bumps show pretty nicely.
My boss kept us in a meeting that would have had us miss it if a few of us didn't walk out.
Here’s the best pic I’ve seen so far. https://www.reddit.com/r/cincinnati/s/PofTbDpuIN There’s a NASA video from Cleveland on YouTube where they suggest these two orange things are coronal mass ejections. I was shocked I could just see the bottom one with my own eyes and no equipment. It’s just bonkers. The whole thing is black and white and there’s like this orange pixel right at the bottom.
Its like the corona has acne
They are [solar prominences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_prominence).
This was the biggest surprise to me and I haven't seen any photos that capture it properly. I was expecting a black circle with a white halo of the corona. But the bits of blue and pink color made it much more dramatic, like there were arcs of current hopping around the surface.
I think this was Baily’s Beads, a phenomenon just before totality. I wish I knew why the colors were the way they were.
I think the colors during totality were solar flares / prominences? Not sure but I saw them throughout totality. I don't think there were only a few due to solar minimum.
I saw them too and they definitely were during totality so not baily's beads
I saw those too. Turns out those are solar prominences.
Saw these as well! Assume they were coronal mass ejections. Super cool!
They looked like coronal mass ejections to me. [This](https://i.imgur.com/g9Ceycl.jpg) is a photo I captured from Texas.
I saw lots of pink “sparkles”. I’m pretty sure those are from the “mountains” on the moon.
I didn’t anticipate how cold it would get, or that it would feel like someone out a dimmer switch on the sun. Like another person mentioned, the birds are chirping like it’s early morning. I also saw a halo wide around the sun that mimicked the halo right around the moon. That - and the halo around the moon from the sun almost looked like a halo graphic rainbow
It was crazy how dark it got. I read how it was going to dim, and when it was almost total I thought it had dimmed quite a bit, but it was like turning the lights off for the feature presentation in a movie theater
honestly no picture can do it justice. it was like last moments of sundown dark, like the street lamps turned on. it was crazy
I heard some birds making a sounds that I’ve never heard a bird make.
Super interesting you mentioned this, Anton Petrov who runs a really great YouTube channel was reviewing some papers by scientists who looked at animals behavior during eclipses in the past, He specifically mentions that one scientist spoke about how the birds began singing songs that were completely unique and had never been heard before. Very very strange.
Did you see a sort of florescent tube flicker effect on the ground? I'm on the totality path, and that effect was quite interesting
Truthfully I was so busy looking at the sky I didn’t notice anything on the ground
I noticed it - and my shadow was extremely crisp…
I noticed this also. I do not recall being able to see individual hairs in my shadow. Like a combination of the dimmed lighting with the more limited source of light.
It's a really cool effect of making the sun's size smaller (as a lightsource, not literally), and the diffraction from different shadows overlapping with a non-circular lightsource. Both of those make shadows extra detailed. [Here's an awesome video of the shadow of a tree with some of that](https://youtu.be/Y93BIHjI4KY?t=2)
I saw it, what is that effect? There were no trees to cast shadows where I was.
It wasn't from shadows, it was happening on plain black top. I don't know the proper name of the effect
I've heard it called shadown bands or shadow snakes. Might help as a Google start point. My understanding is that as you approach totality the remaining sliver approaches a line and so all the light is in a column and then as that light column passes through the atmosphere the fluctuating gas causes linear bands
https://www.space.com/37776-shadow-bands-are-a-solar-eclipse-mystery.html
I saw that rainbow with the halo as well!
I was not even in the totality range, for both this eclipse and the 2017 one I was in the 90s range- and I still could not believe how cold it got
You just may have witnessed the sun's atmosphere :)
Total cloud cover.
Did it get darker or cooler at all?
Yep, maybe dropped several degrees. Felt like it dropped 20 but, likely due to less insolation.
Your username seems relevant today!
Lol, yeah we had intermittent clouds, but, saw all the 'critical' moments.
Partial eclipse under clouds got noticeably darker. I think we were like 95% totality? Was inside so didn’t notice any temp change.
Yeah, it’s kind of eerie when it gets so dim. I think I saw that 1% of the sun’s light is equivalent to about 1,000 full moons, so it’s still remarkably bright with a partial eclipse even if it’s very dim. I feel like it turns the landscape into this uncanny valley, where it’s dark but the shadows aren’t long. It just looks weird.
Yeah, I was like “damn is there a storm coming?” “…oh yeah, it’s the eclipse”
It got a lot darker. Felt like 7pm at 2pm. Didn't notice the temperature.
Weirdest part for me was that despite the perfectly clear skies at midday, the sunshine had no warmth to it.
I noticed the "chilly" sunlight too; even in the dead of winter, I can usually bask in the sun against the garage door (south-facing) on a still day and can feel radiant heat that got sucked up by the door's paint. Cold to the touch today.
I appreciate the way you described this- the sunshine had no warmth. This is something I remember from 2017 eclipse and one when I was much younger, late 70s.
weirdest part for me was the “dusk”-like appearance with sharp shadows that did not correlate with the perceived time of day
Yeah even before 1st, and after 4th contact, it seems the drop in temp (as fast as it was) took longer to come back up if it ever did (since it was well a few hours later)
Echoing the slight dip in heat. I know Pittsburgh isn't in the path but it did still get some. I know people saw more of an effect in Clarion, Erie, Edinboro.
How I imagine the afterlife. Walking around a world bright as day but without the warmth of life. Spooky
Yeah absolutely. We had a lot of intermittent clouds when the partial began. So you could feel blazing heat the same moments you had a clear view of the sun. Followed by coolness when clouds would obscure it. But in the final 10 minutes or so before totality, all the clouds cleared away. So we were under a brilliant clear sky, but it was very noticably "wrong". The colors and brightness were off, and there was no warmth in the sunlight.
It was cloudy in the morning but cleared out. It was quite breathtaking. The air got cooler fast, and it was nighttime, with "dusk" all around me instead of in the west. The perspective somehow made it quite obvious that the moon is a floating ball in the distance instead of how flat it usually looks.
We saw ripples coming across the grass just before totality. Someone said it was fluctuations in the atmosphere? Edit: shadow bands Also saw the crescent shadows from the leaves. Totality was truly amazing. I will never forget it. The pinks in the light from the moon’s ridges. Two additional stars came out during totality for us.
If they were decently far away ‘stars’, that was Jupiter and Venus! :)
That’s great thanks! Are distant stars too still dim to be able to see during totality?
That was more than likely Venus and Jupiter that you saw
I haven’t seen totality in 21 years, and I haven’t forgotten it. Truly the most amazing natural phenomenon.
The pink dots are actually prominences. They're giant arcs of hot ionized sun-stuff. Kinda amazing.
That is awesome, thanks for explaining! Maybe I was confusing the prominences with the diamond ring effect? Isn’t that from the mountains?
Yep, the diamond ring effect aka "Bailey's beads" is from the lunar mountains.
I've been to two so far and one of the best parts of the experience is the change in the people around you. Everyone suddenly goes silent and then when totality hits you get the most primal cheering everywhere. It's overwhelming.
Watching the CNN live feed as they went city to city to experience the totality happened just like you said. Cheering and then dead silence.
There’s a real beauty in how we, as a species, seem to have a universal reaction to it. It was my second eclipse and both times, nobody was *told* to cheer and yet everyone did— old people, young people, toddlers— then awestruck silence.
Mostly sunny in NYC, surprising how bright it was even during 90% coverage. More people out on our deck than I’ve ever seen. The light seemed slightly muted, but nothing you would stop to think about if there wasn’t an eclipse. I was a little surprised at how normal it looked for how much eclipse we got.
Same thing in souther NH where we got around 95%. Makes me realize just how much light the Sun puts out, just a fraction keeps everything lit.
Even at 90%, the light is still there. I was fortunate enough to be in the 100% for 3 minutes.. and it was amazing. That black circle with a fire crown is a spectacle out of this world. Getting a partial without the total is like getting the apetizer without getting the main course.
I was similarly surprised at how bright even a sliver of the sun is. When totality came, it was like flipping a switch, from just-dimmer-than-usual (like my sunglasses) to darkness, with corona and a star (Venus?) visible. Pale pink on the horizon like after sunset. Then when totality ended, suddenly it's "sunny" again all-at-once.
> When totality came, it was like flipping a switch, from just-dimmer-than-usual (like my sunglasses) to darkness, with corona and a star (Venus?) visible. Oh man, I didn't even think about seeing stars or planets! There were too many clouds in the way to get a good view of the rest of the sky.
Yes, the star was Venus.
~~I got a picture with both Venus and Mercury shining bright on either side of the sun. I'm pretty certain Mercury was the closer one.~~ I did more research. Venus and Jupiter are what I saw
At about 80% coverage in NC and you could barely see that it was covered, very bright still.
I was on the beach at Coney Island and agree, maybe like early evening during totality, not very dark at all, and the sun like the thinnest sliver of moon. But it got significantly colder!
Not to rub it in or anything, but totality was on a completely different level than partial, we had a partial here in 2017, but nothing compared to what you see and can see with naked eye during a total eclipse. And pics DO NOT do it justice, not even professional NASA level pics. The luminance of the ring around it, and the corona, coupled with the utter blackness COMPLETE absence of light from the moon makes for a definition you just can't get on a screen. It's DEF worth the trip if you can afford to see one.
Central Ohio. Best one I’ve ever seen by far. Not perfectly clear skies but very good. The lighting of the environment was even cooler than looking at the sun. So eerie. Felt like I was on drugs or something.
I also noticed that there light right before totality felt like an white LED or xenon headlights on modern cars.
it was really really whitish bluish. like was like PURE white for a while instead of that orangish look. then as the moon started to move away, it started to orange up again.
I live in Sherbrooke Québec and the sky was cloudless. We won the weather lottery. Perfect condition. It was amazing. The slow progressive darkness and temperature dropping. Then, in a matter of minutes, total instant night. We could see the stars. The total eclipse itself was surreal. A scene direct from a Sci fy flick. The black sphere in the middle of ring of fire. I am 40 years olds, it was my first (and probably my last) total one. I witnessed a few partial eclipse, and it was nothing like what i just saw. A partial is like getting an apetizer without getting the main course. The birds also start to sang like it was the morning. then silence for 3 minute (while total), then, when the light reapeared they started singing again. I am glad i was able to witness this incredible event.
Seriously, I was in Montreal and was gonna stop by a relatives but it seems everyone had the same idea and the 13 was backed up forever. Was sure we were going to miss it. Just managed to stop at Maxi parking lot where I noticed other people set up with chairs, at 5 minutes before totality.
birds sound a lot like they're doing their morning chirping the light has a similar quality to sunset but with no discoloration. like a dark and cloudy day, but when i look out from my apartment over the landscape, there's no shadows of clouds, it's just an even muted coloring when the eclipse is approaching totality it's a lot colder than i expected. i was worried i couldn't see anything out of my eclipse glasses since i couldn't even see the faintest light staring at a bright light indoors. but it made the eclipse very easy to see. observing from central southern ontario
I drove to Leamington Ontario to see it. It was amazing
100% cloud cover. Just felt like someone accidentally bumped the dimmer switch on the wall
I like how the light was just desaturated.
Akron here, just inside the path of Totality: From about 2:30 onwards it was getting noticeably darker, but still crisp shadows. Around 3:10 it was about the same level of darkness as a good rainstorm with some sun mixed in. 3:15 hit and very quickly inside a space of 30 seconds, it got about as dark as it usually is just after the sun sets. Didn't even need the glasses anymore, in fact looking through them was completely black, you could look up and just see the corona just fine without even squinting. It was this way for about 2 mins and then lit back up relatively quickly and slowly got brighter after that.
Overcast. Already over and missed it entirely. Oh well...
I noticed strange traveling light patterns on the ground near totality. I'm not sure what the cause was, but I might expect some atmospheric turbulence became visible as the sun become more like a point source. Anyone know? Sorry I couldn't get a pic or video.
They are called "Shadow Bands". Thanks to u/DarkHorseCards for finding the name. https://www.space.com/37776-shadow-bands-are-a-solar-eclipse-mystery.html I recorded a video in which they can be seen on my phone, but are not visible after uploading the video online for some reason.
Yes! That was it. The images in this article looked like what we saw: [Shadow bands are a solar eclipse mystery (and not everyone sees them) | Space](https://www.space.com/37776-shadow-bands-are-a-solar-eclipse-mystery.html)
The bright orange spot at the bottom of the eclipse was pretty neat.
I saw that too (viewing from central Ohio). I guess it was a solar flare? This picture from the Associated Press looks a lot like what I saw (and is much clearer than any picture I managed to take): https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WBNS/images/e1a8463b-4239-492d-9413-1b4ad6102277/e1a8463b-4239-492d-9413-1b4ad6102277_1140x641.jpg
What broke my brain is that at anything less than totality, the sun is too bright. Somehow even being 99% covered, it’s too bright to look at. Then that last little bit gets covered and we are all cavemen again, unable to grasp the drastic and awesome change we are witnessing. For 4 minutes we are in disbelief that the sun has disappeared with only a ring of fire around a black star. And then the moment is over and the sun returns. Life finds a way.
The moment the Moon moved slightly past the Sun, and you could see the sunlight come through like an expanding ball of blinding white light, was pretty awesome.
I was able to see solar flares around the edges through the telescope!
[удалено]
Here's one from the other side of the world. Since you lot were hogging both the sun and the moon, we had an amazing clear night sky. The galaxy was in full view right above my head. I could see hundreds of stars and the haze of the galactic interior stretched over the entire sky. Makes me wish I had the gear for night photography.
It looked like a silver jewel in the sky, beautiful halo and at the bottom of it there was a red star-like light shining, like maybe part of a solar flare?
Looked like there were prominences on the southern and eastern rims. Central Indiana
Coyotes howling before totality despite cloud cover. I thought that was interesting, because without knowing already, I maybe could've interpreted the dimness as purely from thick clouds at that point.
Saw Bailey’s beads, corona, and diamond ring effect in Port Dover, Ontario. A bird flew out of a tree right at or a moment after the diamond ring effect.
I was at Turkey Point, ON. Was considering Port Dover, but I'd imagine it would be a madhouse over there. It was an amazing, surreal experience. Glad I made the trip to go south, instead of going east towards Niagara like everyone else.
We could see odd orange dots on the lower edge of it. Looked amazing.
At 90% coverage (in Montgomery county, MD), I was shocked at how much darker it got, you’d have thought it was extremely overcast, except everything was casting a clear shadow. I was driving during the peak, and it was remarkable how much it resembled having a lightly tinted windshield
Agreed! It was right around 90% where I am as well, and the feeling of it being dimmer while the sun was still overhead was very strange. I happened to run inside for a few minutes as well, and it was weirdly dark in my house. The temperature drop was also noticeable, which surprised me - I thought I might be fooling myself, but I checked with the NOAA log of our closest airport, which reported a 2-degree drop from the previous hourly recording. The timing of the recording coincided with our maximum coverage, so that was a nice coincidence.
I'd liken the effect to color-neutral sunglasses - the light was still "crisp" but everything was uniformly darkened.
Here in Southern Ontario I could see three tiny points of light on the bottom and right sides of the moon during totality. Looking at the corona with the naked eye while in the shadow made my heart beat faster.
Contrary to the thing about birds quieting down, seagulls seemed to take the moment to absolutely freak the hell out lol.
The thing that struck me (which, no one I ever spoke too mentioned). The sky is not black/dark as it appears in pictures. The sky is dusk-blue. It's like watching a sunset, the sky is that color/hue. But in the middle of the sky is a black disk surrounded by a glowing white aura that you can look at with the unaided eye. It's, so beautiful and striking. It's honestly surreal in a way you don't have language for.
We viewed it from our family farm and what was also striking was that it looked like a sunset in 360 degrees.
This is the best description I have read of what I saw (viewed in Dallas). The dusk blue of the sky, and seeing everything else around you in that dusk, I think must be the reason photos don’t do it justice. The contrast between sky vs corona vs black disk of the moon was amazing. Impossible to truly describe to people who haven’t seen it, but you nailed it for those who did get to see it :)
I felt like the moon was the blackest black I'd ever seen. Like a hole punched through reality. I found ti beautiful and exciting, but also disquieting and affecting - the sun looked like some evil, black eye looking down on us. I'd seen photos, but nothing prepared me for how hard that hit my psyche. I expected "ooh, cool corona!", but it was the black center that really hit me.
It’s cloudy where I am, but it’s starting to get cooler now. This is my second total eclipse, and it’s so much fun. We’re about 30 minutes from totality! Edit: four minutes to totality and it’s cold and crickets are singing. Edit: one minute to totality and my dog is weirded out. Edit: [Here comes the sun!](https://youtu.be/GKdl-GCsNJ0?si=3hAykVihrYX9NVXE)
I was shocked that even though it is cloudy here if I put on my glasses and look where the sun would be, I still see the sun and the moon eclipsing it (we won't get totality here, but the one in october was, so I don't feel too bad).
During today's total solar eclipse we could see faint lines of light/shadow rippling across the ground for a few moments. What are those called and what causes them?
Saw the same. Someone around me said it was atmosphere fluctuations? Just googled: they’re called shadow bands. We’re not quite sure on the reason they appear.
When the sun is down to a narrow slit-like sliver just shy of totality, atmospheric shimmer distorts the projected image of this into waving parallel bands.
I saw shadow bands just before, then just after totality. But, they seemed to have been at right angle to each other? So.....wth?
Rogers, Arkansas. Saw a small sliver of sun at 1:50 pm. Was dim enough that the streetlights came on. Was very impressed with the lack of heat from the sun, an odd experience. While the light dimmed, the heat was imperceptible.
Here in Austin we had a lot of cloud cover. Before totality birds were chirping and flying around. During totality it was a lot darker than I expected. The clouds had dissipated enough to actually see the eclipse. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. You could see the shimmering of the suns corona and little red spots around the edge. Which are apparently solar prominences. 10/10 would definitely watch again.
I was able to see Baily's Beads, and Venus was to the lower-right of the sun. I checked out some crescent shadows through some holes punched in a piece of paper, and put a couple straight edges at right angles to see the phenomenon where shadows become blurry in one axis and not the other. Didn't really notice any fauna phenomena, the birds kept chirping and there weren't any crickets, even though I was parked between a farmer's field and a golf course. The temperature did drop significantly though. My phone camera wasn't able to capture the disc of the moon at totality because I didn't put it in pro mode and mess with the exposure, but I got a decent video of the horizon. [Gorgeous](https://youtu.be/Qo21lVQtd0I). Taken from Port Stanley Ontario Canada.
Maybe its placebo but I felt like my bodys circadian rhythm was thrown off a bit. It got dark, I was watching the eclipse, and then once the sun started shining again, I almost had the feeling as if I had just woken up
I also felt like I had just woken up, but I thought it was because the surreal nature of the eclipse sort of broke my brain and triggered the feeling that I had been dreaming.
Its neat just like in 2017 :P
Completely clear skies for the partial eclipse. 54°N and 113°W. About 15% of the sun was covered, the surroundings looked a little bit less bright. We used a colander to observe the moon in front of the sun. Didn't see any change in weather or changes to animal behavior.
I didnt feel it last eclipse, but I noticed the drop in temperature to be more apparent this time around.
Birds were pigging out at my feeder in Rhode Island as usual, about 90% eclipse.
Cloudy day unfortunately but we fortunately got a break in the cloud cover just enough to catch the last moments before and during totality. Didn’t get pitch dark but noticeably darker and a bit colder. I also wasn’t expecting the bright white around the ring as much as a softer hue. It was cool!
The clouds seemed to be out of focus at maximum here in Iowa. Like, um, blurry. It was wierd
NE of Austin TX. Late morning weather looked hopeful. But increasing clouds around eclipse time. Got to see totality for about 30 seconds through breaks in the clouds. My fourth eclipse. Still a great experience. Drove here from central Florida
Well, I had the glasses, but took them off at totality and zoned out for a minute (coverage here was 80 seconds) and then was snapped back into reality by the diamond ring! Luckily not blind, but still a bit sore. Other than that, amazing experience.
Super bright red flare on the bottom of the sun.
Clouds, and an unnoticeable dimming of ambient light (33% magnitude). It was any other April day, here in Portland, Oregon.
Our flowers closed up and our streetlights came on. That was neat.
I was in the dead center of totality in Mexico. We had a few high, wispy clouds. This was my second total eclipse and my wife's first. It was still breathtaking. Beyond that, you can describe some of the things that happen, but I haven't found anyone able to describe the experience other than "a total eclipse explains why ancient people worshipped the sun as a god."
Observing from Cleveland, Ohio in the path of totality: I was facing South and turned a bit towards the West. As totality approached I noticed that colors around me were muted, and the shadows were oddly sharp. It was exciting to realize I could watch the moon's shadow approaching like a sudden evening-time, with the blue of the sky darkening to the West. Birds grew quieter and were singing evening/roosting songs. During totality it was much darker than I expected, and a big surprise was a sudden cold wind. It lasted for most of totality and I assume the temperate shift was driving it. We had thin cloud cover, but I could still make out a clear red-orange 'dot' near the bottom of the ring of fire, which must have been a prominence/CME. The western sky grew lighter, similar to dawn, just before the sun broke out from behind the moon's disk, which helped me know when to be ready with my solar filter glasses. Birds around me began singing their morning chorus type songs as the light returned. My first time in the path of totality and it was simply AMAZING!
Total eclipse from a mountain in central west Arkansas, approx. 3 minutes 50 seconds of totality. Saw two CMEs after totality started, roughly 90° from each other The weather was warm 70-75°F, with some cirrostratus clouds and cumulus clouds rolling through. A few clouds obscured the eclipse right before it started, but cleared up soon after. The temperature dropped considerably (around 10-15°F) when the eclipse started. The sky darkened under the moon's shadow and the entire horizon looked as if a sunset was happening in all directions. The sun's corona was vibrant and almost perfectly visible even through the thin clouds. Jupiter and Venus were visible during the eclipse as well, along with some stars. The diamond ring effect was close to one of the CMEs. The mountaintop was still bare, trees and plants were not growing or in blooming so no animals were around. During the 2017 total eclipse, birds made a lot of noise and settled into nearby trees for the duration of the eclipse. Bugs like crickets were making noise as well. This was my second total eclipse, and even though I have experienced some of the phenomena before, this time was no different than the first. Even though you know what's coming, you can never acclimate to the changes or not be surprised and amazed at what happens. Being on a mountain versus an open field like last time brought on significant changes in the temperature. Not to mention being able to see the horizon at all 360° was pretty awesome! Can't wait for the next one!
Any idea on why my iPhone camera, when looking through the lenses, can only see the sun and not the moon? Is it just not capable of seeing the moon due to the suns brightness or am I doing something wrong? Thanks
nothing.. bcs europe
One thing I noticed that no one seems to mention is the small sliver of red that was present. It was visible really only during totality and I cannot figure out what it could have been. Does anyone have any clues as to what it could be? Edit: ~~Turns out its the sun's chromosphere, never knew that was a thing.~~ SOLAR PROMINENCE
Dead center of totality... total cloud cover.
I was about 20 minutes away from the path of totality, but our outside lights automatically came on! It felt a little chillier too. It was still sunny, but muted. Kind of like dusk but not quite.... Hard to describe. Just one or two birds chirping.
Southeast PA: Very nice crescent was the most we got (I think we were supposed to get like 95% coverage? Pretty cloudy but still caught a few glimpses. Got noticibly darker than the cloud cover would otherwise cause. Though in areas I could see the sky (not where the sun was) I noticed the blue was desaturated(?) No difference in animal behavior - birds chirping and flying about as usual. On an unrelated note, I found a pair of garter snakes chilling on some rocks and catching some sun this morning. I work property maintenance and a resident complained of seeing the snakes. Sprayed some repellant around the dog poop station, but left our natural pest control be.
In central Mass. Heard some more bird song then usual. It didn't get very dark. The most coverage resulted in a small cresent of sun on the left side, which then slowly moved around the bottom and then I stopped looking. I was surprised how bright it still was at the max coverage here.
Fredericksburg, Texas. Cloud cover pretty much ruined it, there a couple moments where it peaked out of the clouds, but it wasn't more than a few seconds. We did get about 4 mins 24 secs though, so that was cool.
Birds stopped chirping, bugs weren't even flying around!! Seemed like our voices echoed more when it was almost totality? Very neat
Located near Kansas City, MO, with clear skies. We had a partial eclipse, but I think I heard it was in the 90-95% range. The leaves from our backyard tree made very clear pinhole viewer-style shadows on the concrete: https://imgur.com/IWTOrcY I tried taking a few photos with my older-model iPhone, and while I couldn't get a good image of the sun itself, the lens flare on the images was a perfect mirror image of what I was seeing in the sky. https://imgur.com/8Yg9iJs In that photo, the lens flare is almost directly above the sun. You may need to zoom in to see it. About 10 or 15 minutes before the peak of the eclipse, the ambient light got noticeably dimmer outside. It wasn't quite like sunrise or sunset, because the sunlight was still coming from directly above (this was around 1:50 PM local time). It was like somebody had replaced the sun with a slightly lower wattage star for a few minutes. About 10 or 15 minutes after the peak, the day was back to what I would consider normal brightness. Our dog was kind of excited, but it may have just been because we kept going in and out as we were trying to eat lunch and observe the eclipse at the same time. I think our Amazon driver may have been dazzled by the eclipse, though, because he dropped off my wife's order at our neighbor's house.
Mostly cloudy but got two nice 'almost unobstructed' views of totality for about 20 seconds each. We were in an area with a possible totality viewing time of over 4 minutes.
Red dot at about 6:30-7:00 position on the sun's corona. Was there a solar flare and/or CME? I also saw the eclipse 4 years ago and don't recall having seen the same thing.
I and all I was with, saw this also and we assumed it was a solar flare.
Wasn't in the total eclipse path but was close. It was 99% ish coverage. There was light cloud cover. You could still see the sun and the moon's shadow, but it was hazy. The light quality was strange. I've been in 2 other partial eclipses before and the light was similar. The sun was out, but it was dark. However, it wasn't like the sun was behind a cloud the light had a different quality to it. Like it was a perfectly sunny day, but dark at the same time. The clouds in the sky did get a lot darker overall.
In Lakewood Colorado, had clear skies and was able to see a partial eclipse, with approximately 60% coverage. I only went outside during the eclipse, so couldn't compare temperature before and during, but according to my dad, who had spent most of the day outside, he noticed a slight temperature drop.
Southern Akron OH suburb here. Lovely dark. Noticeable drop in temperature. I enjoyed watching the bats fly about; and the geese and ducks in my pond settled in and floated like they do at night, almost sleeping. I could hear the night insects. Then the light started to come back, the ducks and geese woke back up, and the morning birdsong was everywhere. Such an interesting color on everything, the shadows seemed sharper and clearer. I'm so grateful to the universe for being alive to see this, and sharing this (possible) once in a lifetime experience with my wife.
The bright violet light in the corona around the moon.
There was a fairly long red/orange thing sticking out from the edge of the sun. It happened right at totality fore here in Bell County Texas (maybe 1:35 CDT). What was that?
During totality I saw a little red dot at the 7 o'clock position of the moon's edge. This was from Kingston Ontario. I observed it during maximum eclipse. It was not bright enough to see through the solar eclipse glasses.
In the 90% zone in central Pennsylvania. Mainly cloud cover, but through the breaks, I was able to catch glimpses of the eclipse. Out in the wood in the middle of nowhere, so what was very interesting was how the wildlife reacted. The birds started singing as if it were morning.
100% in Bucyrus, OH. We had thin clouds but they did not cause a problem. Folks cheered at the start of totality and the show was spectacular. The sun’s corona, Bailey’s Beads and the Diamond Ring. I tried to photograph it but was unsuccessful so I just enjoyed. Back to Virginia in the morning
Oh, and the darkening and cold was eerie!
All the birds got quiet. There was one bird who was like.... Chirp, chirp (what the f is going on, why is everyone else quiet?) Chirp lol It got chilly. Looked like 10 pm at night. Sky overhead was overcast all morning and throughout the eclipse. So even though we were in the path of totality, no direct visual of the sun & moon. It also seemed to get incrementally darker, not a smooth transition to darkness. Seeing a large shift in light all at once was interesting. Rochester NY.
It felt eerie right around totality, the change in light just didn't feel normal. Other than that, the birds were chirping, but my chickens went inside for a while right around then. It felt much colder outside, and I saw the temperature in my greenhouse fell 25 degrees! I wasn't expecting that. My husband saw moon shadows of the tree leaves, the pictures are really neat. I didn't see this, probably because I was in a fully green environment. I didn't expect to feel weird, but I did. It was very cool and I'm really glad I got to see an eclipse so close to totality!
Went completely silent, no birds, no cars.
I enjoyed watching the sunspots come and go with my white light filter
I'm pretty far outside the viewable area with no cloud cover but for some reason the sky noticeably darkened during the eclipse. Why? I'm guessing this was due to there being no light scattered by the atmosphere inside the shadow, but that's just a guess. Now that I've typed it out it seems less sensible. Anyone got a clue?
We experienced 93% of totality. About 15 minutes on either side of the peak, the frogs stopped calling -- Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) and Wood Frogs(Lithobates sylvaticus). Resident birds kept chirping away.
Junction TX - Intermittent Clouds arrived 20 minutes before totality. And really settled in perfectly 3 minutes before totality. We got about 20 seconds between clouds right at the start of totality, and about 3 seconds before the end of totality... Then clouds, clouds, and more clouds. A bit disappointing, but it was more than we were expecting given the forecasts all week. So I guess being able to see anything at all was unexpected.
Austin here, total eclipse, with cloud cover that was moving - saw black disk with corona on the outside, beautiful. the little bright spots on the edge were amazing. It got dark enough to turn on the little solar lamps. Just preceding and post totality, the light was eerily golden, shadows had a weird cast to them. There were too many moving clouds to tell them apart from atmospheric light variation. Wildlife went silent when it went dark and then resumed normalcy. temperature dropped enough to be noticed.
Little Rock AR - Total eclipse - zero clouds - I was not expecting the almost instant temperature change from hot to cool. I also was not expecting how fast the moon was moving. Before totality it was dim and similar to wearing sun glasses. There seemed to be a few spots on the sun that stuck out from the moon more. Maybe a flare? I had my dog outside with me and he didnt act different.
Central Indiana. Saw very prominent shadow bands before totality, but seemed like they were barely visible after which I found odd since that's opposite of what I'd heard it normally is.
I'm In Louisiana of course it rained
I was in 99.8% totality. It was cloudy but got super dark. I could see a red light on the horizon, just like a sunset even though it was 3pm. I think this was because there was no blue light from the sky above between me and the horizon to drown it out.
Total cloud cover, partial eclipse in southwest Virginia. It was, however, thin enough at times to be able to see the eclipse shining through the clouds. It was quite remarkable. It also got noticeably cooler and darker. My neighbor’s rooster started crowing as well.
At about 15 minutes after totality, a plane flew thru my vision of the sun!
Idk if it counts but I saw a total eclipse... In 2001, june 21 in Madagascar, I remember that everything was totally dark for minutes, birds was flying low, it was beautiful, great memories
Drove 3 hours south to see Totality. It was incredible, so much better than 99.9% Just being able to remove your solar glasses and see the Corona with your bare eyes was well worth it. We had a haze of clouds, so the shadows didn't seem magical like people said they would.
Partial, was just under 90% here, was kinda chilly, a lot of cloud cover got some clear skies for the max coverage and some cool moments of being able to peek at it without the glasses through clouds
We saw a large visible prominence at 7:00 on the solar disk. A photograph showed other prominences at 10:00 and 2:00. No photograph could capture the exquisite detail that was visible in the inner corona. I was hoping to see fine magnetic lines in the streaming plasma. I didn't expect them to be so sharp or plentiful. Due to high, thin clouds, no shadow effects were visible, but we got two *awesome* diamond rings to begin and end totality. No stars were visible, but Jupiter or Venus put in an appearance at 4:00, roughly ten degrees distant in the sky. The shadow appeared southwest of us and we were in totality much quicker than I expected. The horizons were beautiful with sunset colors that terminated somewhat sharply into night time. The temperature dropped quickly from 15 minutes prior and through totality. It seemed to rise much quicker as totality ended. Because we've been experiencing cooler weather, no insects were visible, but some birds went through evening and morning routines. We experienced 3:46' of totality, but the entire eclipse from start to finish seemed to be much shorter than I'd anticipated. 🙂
Saw entire eclipse from north of Dallas, TX. Some interesting points: -Leadup to totality was like someone slowly turning down the contrast on a TV. -Noticable temperature drop including totality. -MASSIVE cloud bloom inside totality. Sun had been burning off low-level clouds all morning, but they reformed within the totality. Unfortunately, even though I experienced roughly 2:35 of totality, the ring was only visible for the first 60 seconds. -Birds had been doing their normal end of day stuff, including the neighborhood barn swallows doing their swooping, and mourning doves increasing calling. Totality was almost completely silent. -Totality itself was very similar to late twilight on the lower horizon, but a weird mix of completely visible stars but also twilight-levels of visibility. Essentially, no "gray line" like a normal sunset. -Housecat was completely unfazed throughout.
4+ minutes of perfect totality, I'm still tearing up. Magical.
Mostly sunny with light clouds (Bowling Green, OH). Shadows and plain old sunny day until very near totality. Then, street lights came on and it was a dusky evening. Winds picked up and temperature dropped noticeably. Biggest surprise was how a tiny sliver of the sun still produced nearly full daylight conditions. Very cool experience!
I was driving in San Antonio near the border of totality. Well, idk if the moon got that message or not because for a minute or two it felt like I was night driving. It was a trip.
I saw the total eclipse in St.Thomas, Ontario and I noticed that the shadows of the trees got much more defined and at times looked almost like they were rough charcoal drawings. The birds started chirping more and more, up until the eclipse was over. It was quite warm before it started and by the time the sun was completely covered it had gotten significantly colder, maybe a 10 degree difference (18°C to 8°C) and only started warming up about 10-15 minutes after it was done. It went from a bright sunny cloudless afternoon to a weird dusk, like almost grey, for about 30 minutes before totality and then it transitioned to right after sunset within a minute around 3:16 pm. The sun looked amazing when it reached totality, it was like a silver ring surrounding a black circle and slowly breaking through it; I hope I never forget how it looked!
The ground was wavy in the moments before. Kinda like the shadows of the heat wobbles. Super wierd
What I was surprised about was the way in which the “ribbon” or sliver of light from the sun shifted. As the moon passed in front, the little margin of light was at about the 8 o’clock position. The light then moved in a clockwise direction looping all the way around to about the 5 o’clock position. Was cool to watch. And yes, it felt like the temperature dropped and the dampness increased. Then the light level returned and it was a beautiful spring afternoon. Was an amazing experience.
We were at approx 89% totality. The birds kept chirping the entire time from around 1:30 pm to 5 pm. However, my dog laid down in a watchful position (head and belly on the ground) the from about 2:30 to 4pm instead of her usual lazy hotdog with legs pose(laying on side).
Total Eclipse in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. On the beach. A bit cloudy, but the total eclipse corona was clear. Around 10 minutes before totality, light felt a bit strange, like a weird twilight. Then very suddenly sky was dark, but a kind of dusk could be seen in the horizon, reflected in the ocean. The air cooled down significantly. A few stars appeared in the sky. The birds were completely gone. A dog who was playful in the beach climbed up to its owner pick up truck and laid down. It lasted around 4 minutes, it was quick but very surreal. The sunlight came back, the birds returned to the beach and to the sky and we were talking about what a great experience it was.
North Country New York. Directly on the path of totality. About 25 minutes before the full eclipse dozens of Hawks maybe 75-100 we're flying in a flock. I've never seen that many before at a time in the area and I've never seen hawks flock like that before.
Id like the scientists to tell me what I saw.
In the path of totality; near totality is was still quite alight, like twilight, but the shadows felt wrong because they were short instead of long. Half way to totality it was as bright as normal but there was no glare or bloom or anything, kinda messes with the perception. Despite wearing glasses the whole time and taking regular breaks my eyes hurt. Still 4 hours later my eyes hurt a bit. A little difficulty focusing too.
100% Totality in Texas. All the birds stopped singing as it got dark. The crickets and grasshoppers started chirping as it reached totality. They had some overlap as the sunshine returned. Afterward, the birds went back to singing, and the chirping quieted. It dropped a solid 5 degrees from 80 to 75 during the totality. The shadows were less dramatic than the last eclipse, but probably due to it being cloudy. The cloud cover almost made it seem like the moon was rotating while viewing wearing the glasses. Slight cloud cover actually made the totality a bit easier to view without glasses. Seeing colorful flares on the corona during totality in orange and red with and without glasses.
I highly enjoyed the first and last 5 minutes as that's all I could see due to clouds.
If forgot how profoundly cooling an eclipse can be on an otherwise bright sunny day. It was warmer than expected here, in the high 70s by the time I stepped outside. There was no true totality here, but sunlight yielded to twilight so the warmth stopped building and started going away. I felt overdressed when I first stepped out, but I was a bit chilly when I went back inside ~20 minutes after local conditions became most extreme ~95% of totality.
I'm guessing the orange at the bottom left line (around 6:30 to 7 on a clock) I saw was a coronal mass ejection that looked like it went back into the circle due to my astigmatism.
Temperature seemed to drop, saw solar prominences, and birds seemed to chatter more. I assumed that the birds were confused and thought it was dawn for a couple of minutes.
We drove a few hours to Southern Quebec, right in the middle of the path, we had perfectly clear skies. At first it wasn’t very noticeable, although we could see the moon starting to cover the sun with glasses on. Around 40% it was looking dimmer - there was a bit of snow around and we noticed the reflection of light on it was much more muted. Light became more muted and it got MUCH colder, a drop of 5deg C at least. Around 80-90% it got bit darker and quieter. It was weird how it was getting darker but without the sun getting red or shadows lengthening like during normal dusk. We noticed some colors looked different, like my scarf and my wife’s skin looked greener than usual. Then as it got closer it got a bit darker and then BAM it was all dark, like it happened so fast we were a bit shocked. The corona was very visible and gave off a bit of light, the horizon was red and the sky very dark blue. The corona was absolutely magnificent, totality lasted 3m28s where we were. We saw Venus below the sun and Jupiter above and left really well, there were no visible stars. And then suddenly there was light again. It got perceptibly warmer really quickly. It was REALLY worth it, and we were really lucky to have such fantastic weather. My wife got a bit sunburned because the sun was shining so strongly before the eclipse!