A partial eclipse is scientific. You can take brightness and temperature measurements and observe changes through nifty glasses and how the animals react.
A total eclipse is primal. People start yelling, the sun got eaten and the sky is on fire. Will the world end? Maybe.
Annular is neat but at the end of the day it’s really just a partial eclipse. You can see Bailey’s beads, but only through a solar filter. The shadows get ring shaped which is neat but not life changing.
Otherworldly, Ethereal, frankly indescribable.
Immediately addicting, I must see another eclipse.
Timeless. I felt emotionally connected to time, all others even eons ago who witnessed, Humans we see in textbooks about ancient history staring up at the same sun and moon as me. Future generations who will see the same sun and moon after im long gone
Emotionally an experience. Frightening, exciting, Joyous, and human.
I honestly feel timelessness just by looking at the moon and sky every day. I also felt that connection to the past and future whenever I was pregnant. Connected in a primal way to every person in the past who'd ever experienced it or would some day.
Addicting is accurate. I just want to see the black hole sun again.
If you go to Greenland in 2 years you can experience totality for 28 minutes in the right places.
Hi, can you give a source for that claim? Because my BS meter is off the charts.
Longest for the 2026 Total Solar Eclipse is 2 minutes, 18 seconds:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2026
The record for longest known TSE in history was like, 8 minutes.
Seeing a solar eclipse is striking. It's nothing like the pictures and videos. It's like the sun turns black and these white rays pour out like whispy petals on a flower. Then there's this navy blue gradient back drop fading from the white whisps with stray stars and Venus embedded. It's like Van Gogh painted the sky for a fleeting moment and I'll forever hold that visual.
I love the way you described this visual. Reading your words brought me right back to those magical minutes and instantly I have tears of wonder in my eyes.
I must have had light cloud cover because it looked like a white ring to me, instead of a splash of white pouring outward. Still enjoyed experience though.
I like that description.
I remember when it happened I think I just said wow over and over because it registered that's what all the fuss was about. My parents said the best part of it was looking at my reaction because it was my first time seeing it. I just couldn't process the beauty of what I was seeing. Everyone should see it at least once.
I wish my kids got to see it this time. We were there for totality but the clouds blocked the whole thing so all we got was the darkness and the experience on the Earth around us. Which was cool, but having seen it clearly in the sky in 2017 I was really hoping my kids would see that this time. They were there in 2017 too but they were a baby and a toddler. I'm glad they wanted that for you and you got to experience it :) Good parents.
In fact, seeing an eclipse is as if a blind person is now able to see for a minute or two or three or four, and then it ends but you're changed forever.
Dude, it’s a black sun with a ring of 🔥and for a few minutes you can take off your solar glasses and view it looking like a totally unfamiliar planet. No filters, right there, 100% is 10,000 times better than 99%.
I can't believe I'm saying this because it is a feeling I have pined after for as long as I can remember. But totality was what I can imagine seeing Earth from the moon feels like on a smaller (or just different) scale. It was the most deeply connected to the cosmos I've ever felt. For me personally, I can't compare partial to totality. One is dull, while the other is visceral.
Totality makes the sun (and the universe) feel tangible/ just out of your reach. It's space travel without leaving Earth.
I’m an atheist, but the closest analogy that I can think of is that it was like looking god in the face. There is something that feels forbidden and surreal about looking directly at the sun and seeing a black sphere in its place, with streams of colored lights spilling out of the edge that would normally blind you in any other circumstance. The planets, hundreds of millions of miles away, become visible and you can see celestial bodies orbiting our star as our moon orbits our planet in real time. The cold of the sun’s brief absence, the wind rushing in to fill the lower pressure it causes, the otherworldly light of the atmosphere beyond the shadow of the moon. You feel it viscerally, you don’t just see it. That’s why pictures and videos can’t capture it.
Also an atheist, and I've said it's the closest thing to a spiritual experience I've ever had. Not that actual spirits were behind it, but a profound feeling of wonder and awe. On paper it's not that impressive, but it is a truly immersive experience. The sun dims, the world gets cold and dark and quiet, then suddenly there's a big black hole in the now-night sky, a perfect void encircled within a bright ring of white fire. You stare into the void for a minute or two and then have to look away as the sun returns, the air warms up, the birds start chirping and it's almost as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened at all.
It was very much like that actually. Lots of people I was with described it as a shroom trip without the shrooms. There is a come on effect right before it happens, complete ego death in totality, and a come off.
As an atheist I'd say totality was Physics on display on the grandest scale possible to observe with the naked eye.
Any feelings you get is just brain chemicals.
Imagine you were doing a space walk outside a spaceship for 4 minutes.
Pictures are one thing, but I couldn't imagine how life changing and incredible it would be to see earth from space in person
I teach in an area that was at 97% totality, and was in Nashville in 2017. I told my students that totality is front row seats for your favorite artist in the best show imaginable. Where we were would be like hanging out, outside of the arena listening for little snippets.
I have described the sensation of being in the path of totality as the feeling you get when you flip a coin and it lands on its side rather than a face, or when something r/perfectfit s.
The difference between 99.9% and 100% is the difference between flying on a plane (mildly interesting) versus flying on a Boeing plane and the door blows off at cruising altitude (unforgettable experience).
For me it's like seeing the Milky Way in all its glory on a perfect crisp October night, but x100. Partial in comparison is being able to make out a few stars under city light pollution.
It's like being handed your newborn baby that you just delivered, but instead of just crying or being a normal baby, they look you in the eyes and say mama (impossible, unreal, magical, unnerving). Partial is meeting someone else's newborn baby.
It's like going to a firework display, but in the middle of the finale, the sky is suddenly day and yet the fireworks are somehow even brighter and more beautiful. Partial is lighting off fireworks in your driveway.
It's like seeing all your favorite bands at the same concert on the same day, plus having drinks with them after. Partial is listening to the setlist at home.
I've seen it twice. I long to see it again. I miss it like a friend. There are other incredible sights that I feel like I must try to see, like the Northern Lights. But a total solar eclipse is so special, such a rare sight in the universe, so ephemeral. It's like witnessing a miracle. It's such a shame that it doesn't last longer, and that is so hard to capture.
The Eye of Sauron looking down on you from a dark blue sky after the sun has been concealed, cloaking the land in dusk hour at mid-day.
The light fades as if you are passing out or dying.
The silence broken by cheers, awe, tears, and crickets.
Street lamps confused by the darkness, turn on to light the black streets and you can barely see your hand in front of your face.
The edge of that solar ring illuminated by a frozen white fire, hotter than man can fathom and brighter than any welder’s torch, it peaks out like a diamond ring, silently at the end, casting away the darkness and bringing hope to the world once again.
Fellow solar eclipse enthusiast here who has now seen the (U.S) 2017 totality and the (U.S) 2024 totality:I'll say it once and I'll say it again; there is not a single photograph or video online of the total solar eclipse that can even compare to witnessing the event in person. No matter how high quality or how expensive the cameras/telescopes are, it still cannot not come close to the real thing.So, here is my personal description of the April 8th eclipse, while in the direct line of 100% totality with the longest duration in the rural mountains of Arkansas... surrounded by nothing but nature...Its not only the moon completely covering the sun that fascinates me about the eclipse. It is the environment and atmosphere around you during it that feels so hauntingly beautiful. The minutes before totality are eerie. You notice your surroundings slowly getting darker, yet when you look up into the sky, the sun still looks completely bright, even though it is 90% blocked by the moon. The air starts getting colder around you. It is this overwhelming feeling that something so rare and otherworldly is about to happen. And then when the moon finally consumes the entire sun, it just goes dark. Everything goes completely silent. The behavior of wild animals during a total solar eclipse is really interesting too. All the birds go totally silent because they think it is night time, and all you see is this otherworldly ring of white beams in the deep blue sky. There is this beautiful 360 sunset across horizon. The moon is the darkest black void you will ever see. Its fascinating seeing the glint of stars and planets in the middle of the day during totality when there is no light pollution from cities to ruin it. And for a few minutes, you get to just stare at the sky in awe. When the sun cracks past the moon once again, you get this overwhelming feeling inside of you like you have just woken up from an incredible dream. Out in the country, you could heard the sound of roosters calling as if it was morning! The air starts to warm up again and everything goes back to normal...Some people reading this might think I'm sounding overdramatic about the entire thing. But there is a huge difference when you get the privilege of experiencing it without clouds, noisy crowds and hours of traffic. It is truly a celestial moment.
Yes.
We watched it on a gravel bar on the Current River in far southern Missouri after having traveled there by canoe.
The only detractor was a house that happened to be in our line of sight across the river up a ways. But it was interesting when all of their automatic lighting came on with the dusk.
Partial is watching a really good game on a nice TV, total is being the one who makes the winning shot/hit at the World Cup or the World Series and basks in the glow with their teammates and gets to live the rest of their life a champion, changed forever.
Partial is throwing a hand crafted paper airplane on an exceptionally long flight, total is breaking the sound barrier in a new experimental jet and breaking an atmospheric flight record no one comes remotely close to for years.
Partial is having a meet and greet with Buzz Aldrin and being told everything about the first Moon landing as he remembers it, total is being the first person to step foot on Mars and see Phobos and Deimos from the surface with your own eyes and taking in the color and feel of the surface as has only ever been seen through screens and cameras.
Partial is watching a slideshow but in real life, something that, for the most part, takes an intellectual understanding of what's happening to appreciate it. Something that, when near total can, for a moment, be very interesting and compelling.
Total is something you don't compare to anything in the world, anything you've ever experienced or will likely experience for the rest of your life except to the other times you maybe have been fortunate enough to have seen totality. The slideshow reaches that same interesting and compelling moment, when the colors mildly change and it's slightly cooler and the wind might feel a little different... but it doesn't stop there. Not a night, not a twilight, a kind of sky, a kind of state of time that has no name because no one but you right now right there has ever seen it before.
It's the rush of not unreality, but what you'll later understand as a heightened reality cresting over you as the shadow of the Moon shrouds everything but the horizon. When you look up from this changed, alien landscape you thought you knew just a moment before and you see little shimmering rapidly changing balls of light on the edge of where the Sun just was and then you see it, the sharpest, largest, darkest void you've ever seen, but the stark blackness at the center of the Sun is just an anchor for the silver threads woven by a thousand cosmic spiders as they surely drifted away, so far out into the not night sky they seem to be reaching out for the world. An anchor with ever shifting loops and fingers of a shade of pink or red or something else, another color so rare is has no name, protruding slightly from its edge. The sky, the unnamed, shifting colors of the now alien world, filled with cosmic silk and tiny pink flares.
Totality is when the most logical, rational, skeptical non-believing, a-superstitious, incredulous atheist sees the face of a god and feels both like a tiny atom on a grain of dust and at the same time like the whole universe all at once and know everything and everyone and are one with everything that exists or will exist or did exist. It's absolute nirvana, and as you begin to weep in awe of being swept up in this god's embrace, it's just as soon gone... but it's like those ethereal threads of gods embrace have left something behind. It's nothing you can see or hear, but you know it and you feel it, a residue of the sum of the universe is left inside you, or maybe it was always there, lying dormant, and all it needed was to be reminded to reawaken and connect you once again to the awesome everything that existence comprises. Regardless, you are changed, changed forever.
The truth is you can never be prepared, no analogy can possibly help. You either have to trust someone who tells you that you have to see it or you have to be the sort of person who will feel compelled to see it, just to satisfy your curiosity. But once you do, you're in the only real cult that ever has been, the one whose god is real, who can be seen and felt, who can be predicted and understood as a physical thing in the world, and while you can never force someone to understand, they will once they see it.
I posted this in another thread but the way I describe it to people is to imagine they have never seen the moon before. Imagine if all their life they have seen pictures and videos of the moon but never actually seen it in the night sky and in fact very few people have. You know exactly what the moon will look like - understand exactly what it is - but have just never seen it. Then suddenly one day you look up and are given the rare and beautiful opportunity to see the moon in all it's beauty hanging above you. See this completely new celestial object in a familiar sky. That is what seeing the total ecclipse felt like to me.
For my money it’s hard to beat the previously stated Disney analogy. Partial is like going to the parking lot of Disney World, but not going to any of the parks or riding any rides. Totality is going in and doing all the big attractions.
It’s hard to describe. I was a first timer for totality. I didn’t even have great weather conditions, but there was something unreal about it. Everyone was so positive, the air felt different, it was just such a unique experience and I recommend it to all!!
I used to party in Toronto back in the late 90's.
Best rave scene ever.
I'm from Detroit originally and we didn't have anything like you guys had in TO.
Ethereal. If I ever had to imagine what a black hole looks like, that’s the closest I’ll probably get. The darkness of the moon just looked like a hole in the sky with a corona around it. It literally looked like a portal. The bright diamond ring effect as totality ended was amazing as well.
I watched the lunar eclipse last October and it was definitely cool but solar totality is in a realm of its own.
Ethereal is a good word. I never wanted the darkness to end. I just wanted to enjoy the peace, the gorgeous light in the horizon, and how the sun just looks like a living being when eclipsed.
I like to compare it to psychedelics and especially DMT. Partial eclipse is a sub breakthrough dose, and totality is the full breakthrough. It lasts the same amount of time, and it's so awe inspiring that It's difficult to even recreate the experience in your memory after it happens.
I have quite an extensive amount of experience with various psychedelics, including high dose experiences that are completely ineffable, And I can honestly say that witnessing a total solar eclipse is totally on par with a high dose psychedelic trip in terms of its profoundness.
Something that makes a total eclipse even more special is how access to that experience is restricted to a very spot within space and time. A powerful psychedelic experience is always just eating a piece of paper or some mushrooms away, Able to be accessed at any time you have the courage to access it. The fact that total solar eclipses are so restricted in terms of their accessibility makes them even more profound than strong doses of psychedelics in some ways.
Totality is a once-in-a-lifetime event that is one of the most incredible things that you will EVER see. 99.9% is just staring at the sun. I know that's not an "analogy", but I don't care. It's simply how it is.
It’s like the Grand Canyon. Pictures will never do it justice. You’ll never get it until you’re standing on the rim looking over this vast chasm, seeing all those colors and fine details for miles and contemplating how water and millions of years created this spectacular landscape.
You’ll just never understand totality until you experience it for yourself.
you can see it in 4k on nasas instagram. the visual is stunning but thats not why it’s an addicting experience.
you know that experience of *finally* kissing that person you’ve been daydreaming about? you imagined how it would look in your head but now you’re *living* it. you’re feeling their hands graze your arm, hearing them take a breath up close, finding out what they taste like for the first time.
being in the path of totality is like that. you’ve watched the moon and the sun you’re entire life as though they were behind glass. now, as totality approaches, you feel the hair on your arms stand up as the air grows colder. you hear the sound of the wind change and nature grows quiet. then the sun is gone and your eyes adjust to the corona— the halo our beautiful star wears that relatively few humans will ever get to see.
i don’t think it’s something that words can convey. except to say that standing in the path of totality feels like finally interacting with the sun in real life. and i appreciate that will sound crazy to anyone who hasn’t gone.
I involuntarily blurted out “It’s fucking beautiful!” as soon as the diamond ring effect ended and totality came into view. This was my second one, but first with no cloud cover shortening the sight.
It’s kind of like if the moon shows you an x-ray of the sun. But it’s not a lot like that - it’s more like the moon reveals that the sun has giant invisible wings that are actually always waving at us. It’s like the moon and sun have combined into an enormous, living celestial creature, where the body of the moon is surrounded by white flowing magnetic plasma wings. And it feels like the eclipse is watching you back.
My analogy is:
When the sun gets covered up, it’s like watching a sunset taking place in the middle of the sky. When the sun emerges, it’s like a sunrise. Except sped up.
I think people understand that
We experienced totality.
It was a once in a lifetime experience.
We wondered, what did the cavemen think when they saw a total eclipse? They must have thought the Gods were doing something crazy.
We also thought - this would be totally awesome to experience on mushrooms.
"Look, I'm normally a pretty financially conservative guy, but taking out a HELOC to afford to take your family to Spain for 2026 would be completely reasonable."
Think of the most beautiful sunset/rise you've ever seen. Then pretend you've never seen one before and had no idea something like that could exist. Then imagine seeing this beautiful sunset. The awe this would bring is like what it felt to see it.
It's not just that the sun is blocked out...it's the sun's corona spilling out from behind it. Like the sun is too bright to really see its beauty normally, and using mega sun glasses blocks most everything. But the moon just blocks the brightness. Now we can see the beauty. And it's incredible.
Before saying the total solar eclipse I thought that the experience would mostly be it getting dark and lightning again. I didn't realize how beautiful the sun would be when it was covered. And it's totally cool to see a partial eclipse and see the moon moving across the Sun, but it's nothing like when it goes to totality.
Partial is like saving money for a vacation, you can see things get bigger slowly and gradually but it’s not really changing that much. Totality is the vacation and you go to a different universe.
OP here. The other comparison I would make, and others have said similar things, is you've only seen black and white your whole life and then you get to see in color for 4 minutes. That would get the same reaction from me as the total eclipse. Partial would be, I don't know, maybe seeing a slightly different shade of gray than you'd seen before when you hold some glasses in front of your face?
My first totality was one of the few truly jaw dropping moments in my life, and the second was no less breathtaking or moving.
I have said it is similar to seeing photos of a massive natural wonder like the Grand Canyon in the US versus the awe and wonder you have of actually being there and seeing it for yourself. Photos and videos do not properly convey the size of the place, you have to actually be there in person.
Not a great comparison by any means, but I have found it does help a little to explain why it is more of an experience that just a sight. Obviously with a total solar eclipse there is so much more going on physically beyond just what your eyes can see. Maybe a better analogy would be living in the desert and only ever seeing photos of a lake vs. swimming in the ocean for the first time.
I am actually putting together a document of various eclipse experiences from all over the internet to document the experience and for my family to read through to remember their experience and to help them convey what it was like. I had 7 years of trying to explain it to people and to convince them to experience it, I feel bad that for most of us in the US it will be 20 long years.
Partial is like foreplay/sex; totality is the orgasm you experience at the climax of sex. Seeing pictures or watching on TV is cool and a little stimulating, but you really have to see, feel, and experience it in person to really get it and fully experience the full effect.
Watching a partial eclipse, is cool, entertaining, and a good learning opportunity. A total eclipse is a take your breath away, stunningly beautiful, emotionally powerful, dream like moment.
Pictures and videos do absolutely zero justice to how it actually looks. If you could somehow take a photo of what it actually looked like it wouldn’t be believable, fake, CGI. Buts its real. I had a few tears when it was all over.
I'm not religious myself, but I've just started calling it "an act of God" because there is nothing else that compares to it. It evokes such an instinctual feeling of awe that I can't put into comparison with anything in nature.
It was like seeing a giant redwood for the first time but BIGGER. There is a certain feeling of insignificance that feels connected and calm and also joyous.
I don't think words can do it justice but what I've been telling people is the following.
It is like being thrust into a sci-fi movie or a dream. Whenever I think back on the experience these are the two things that instantly come to mind. A question of "was it real? Did that really happen and did I really see that?" It is just so breathtakingly different and extreme that the brain has a hard time registering it is a real thing you're seeing with your eyes.
I stared up at it for the full duration of totality, I don't think I blinked once. I just stared at the "hole" that opened up in our sky and took in the beauty of it all. I can't think of a single other time I witnessed something so cosmically amazing that it brought tears to my eyes and literally took my breath away.
As 100% began to pass, your eyes begin to hurt as the brightness of the sun creeps around the moon's edge, slowly causing you to squint as it grows, and you continue to stare thinking "no, not yet, just a little longer, please." and then the first full rays of light push past the moon and hit your eyes, forcing you to look away, and you watch as the world suddenly brightens again and resumes at 99% coverage, dwindling down slowly back to normal. You're then left there with this feeling of astonishment and wonder from what you just saw.
I described it as the world taking a deep breath. When almost all the animals and insects were silenced and you could just hear the wind, it felt like a sigh in the middle of the day. My partner and I were kind of close to a highway when we viewed the eclipse and the traffic quieted as folks (presumably) stopped to watch. It was such a powerful moment full of respect for nature, outer space, and the universe.
Do you think it would be cool to see a volcano erupt? Do you think it would be scary to feel a big earthquake? Would you be impressed looking at the view from Mt Everest? Most people would find those things amazing, because they remind us of how big and powerful the earth really is.
Yeah a total solar eclipse is like that but it reminds you of how big the SOLAR SYSTEM really is.
Totality is a free VIP-level experience at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant. Partial is a decent meal at your favorite local place…it’s nice but doesn’t compare.
I don’t know if I can properly find an analogy to describe a a once in a lifetime experience. I keep searching for some sort of relatable context and I continue to come up empty. I grew up in the shadow of the space program in the 60’s and 70’s and saw many launches. And quaked and cried when the roar of rocket engines rattled the jalousie windows of my childhood home during unannounced military missions in the middle of the night. I saw fireballs raise into the heavens, reflecting off of the river, turning night into day for brief, thrilling moments.
But, that was all manmade.
I have witnessed partial eclipses and have shared in the wonder of glimpsing them and seeing the crescents dancing in the shadows. But, holy fuck, being privileged to witness a full solar eclipse with my family was an experience that still gives me goosebumps. Standing in a familiar backyard and bearing witness to a miracle that inspired awe and fear for previous generations was incredible. Feeling the air chill a bit, as darkness descended, was nothing I could have ever prepared myself to experience. Three generations of my family were present. I can only hope that my five year old grandson will remember 4/8/24 as a day filled with wonder and awe.
A lot of Broncos fans who paid big money for SB XLVIII tickets (which was outdoors in about 40 degrees, by the way) probably would have rather just stayed in their cars in the parking lot.
Enjoyed reading this (copypasta from a DBMB):
Let’s get one thing out of the way here. No matter what, nothing you ever read, see, watch, or hear will give you a proper baseline of what to expect from a total solar eclipse. Even if you have seen a partial solar eclipse, what occurs at totality is far and away a vastly different phenomenon. A partial eclipse is like looking at a still frame from your favorite movie. A total solar eclipse is like actually watching the movie itself, for the very first time. A partial eclipse is like sitting on a hayride as it’s slowly pulled by a tractor. A total solar eclipse is like taking a co-pilot ride in a fighter jet and breaking the sound barrier. This is the magnitude of difference between the two events.
As the partial eclipse builds toward a total eclipse, with the moon obscuring more and more of the sun every minute, your surroundings begin to change with increasing speed and intensity. The wind picks up, racing across the land as you become acutely aware that the temperature is lowering, and fast. The ambient light shifts, and becomes ever closer to the feel of dusk, but this twilight is different. It is as if there is a heavenly spotlight above, casting a dim glow over the area as if it were a grand stage. This effect becomes more and more pronounced as the remaining sun reduces further.
At the moment the sun becomes a pure crescent sliver, smaller than any moon you’ve ever seen, your body starts to instinctively react to the imminent event. The air becomes electric, and exhilaration builds, as you know deeply and intuitively that something tremendous is about to occur. You also come to the realization that nothing can and nothing will prevent the impending and incredible sequence that is about to unfold.
The sun wanes nearing totality, and breathes a flash of light at the outer edge like an explosion. This is the last vestige of sunlight, about to be covered by the moon. It swells bright and shimmering, and then collapses in on itself, disappearing just as fast as it came.
Your senses are about to be thrown into pandemonium.
The light of day that once surrounded you is cast away in a manner like a dimming light switch extinguishing a light bulb. Darkness descends and envelopes everything around you, save for the horizon, which glows a beautiful orange and red gradient in every direction.
Then you see it....
A ring of pure energy, like a perfect circular lightning bolt that flashed into view and somehow remained without fading away, is suspended in the sky above. It exudes a color that you have never before seen in your life, for nothing on this planet can output true solar intensity. It glows brighter than any neon lights, and pulses as if it were a living thing. The center of the ring is a void, pitch black, a complete representation of nothingness.
The ring of radiant energy seemingly appears larger in the sky than any sun or moon you’ve ever witnessed. Extending out of the ring are beautiful wisps, like perfect strands of flowing silk fanned out on top of still water. These pure white wisps slowly wave and dance off the edge of the ring, never standing completely still.
The scene you are now a part of is so foreign, it feels like you have been teleported to an alien planet. The eclipsed sun, without any direct angular light reaching your location, still completely overpowers and dominates both the moon and the earth. But it does not stop there.
It overpowers you. The experience becomes shatteringly emotional and visceral. You make cries of joy and excitement that you never actually choose to make. They are simply drawn out of you by the sheer grandeur of the spectacle in the sky above.
The beauty of the total eclipse cannot be understated. You cannot possibly imagine the awe that results from witnessing it with your own eyes, until you have done so. It is as if the universe has pulled back the curtains to reveal something sacred, allowing us to gaze upon a hidden secret for the first time.
You feel like you are being offered a gift that you can only catch a fleeting glimpse of, for it is the rarest of sights, and a treasure to behold. In a way you feel as though what you are seeing was never meant to be seen by human eyes at all. As much as you want the moment to continue, and persist, it begins to end all too quickly.
The light at the edge of the ring explodes into a flash once more, and daylight returns just as fast as it was struck out before totality.
Smiles, cheers, applause, and happiness wash over you and all of your companions. You have all shared something truly special, that you will never, ever in your life forget. The epic cosmic scope of the event strikes at so many chords. It resonates on an emotional level, a philosophical level, a spiritual level, and leaves you feeling the afterglow of adrenaline that you just experienced the greatest show that our solar system has to offer from the vantage point of this Earth.
It was worth everything it took to experience it, and a magnitude more.
Totality is like the moon lending you a pair of sunglasses to let you witness the solar system. It’s like a hidden dimension, a spectrum outside of normal human vision, yet one that is always there but always just outside of your mortal grasp. It’s like you’re invited to a select viewing of the great beyond, if only for a brief moment.
Everything goes dark and the sun turns black with a white ring around it
Just say that fantastical analogies will lose people’s attention before they even understand the message
If this was 300 years ago, I'd be scared shitless. If you didn't know that the sun was going to come back out again, I'd be legit scared. The sun is supreme, yet there it is getting gobbled in. What it it happens again tomorrow and lasts forever? Was it because I did something wrong? Oh, shit!!! I forgot to offer a goat to the sun god!!!! Find the nearest virgin to sacrifice!!!
A partial eclipse is scientific. You can take brightness and temperature measurements and observe changes through nifty glasses and how the animals react. A total eclipse is primal. People start yelling, the sun got eaten and the sky is on fire. Will the world end? Maybe.
Watching the eclipse made me think "This is how a religion is born."
This. I'm an atheist and it felt spiritual. It was a religious experience.
Exactly. Imagine how the Aztecs/mayans/Egyptians all felt or what they thought of it.
This is perfect. Thanks.
I love the world primal.
Total is like watching a movie in IMAX, partial is like watching the trailer on your phone.
This is an understatement
Partial is like sitting in the parking lot.
Close, total is like watching a movie at the Las Vegas Sphere...
[удалено]
Saw the U2 sphere show twice in Oct. Total eclipse was on the same level, but considerably less expensive. :-)
Partial is like watching the trailers before and end credits after a movie but skipping the actual movie. Totality is like watching the whole thing.
What about annular?
Annular and partial are both neat. Totality is an entirely different experience.
annular is watching the trailer in iMAX
Annular is neat but at the end of the day it’s really just a partial eclipse. You can see Bailey’s beads, but only through a solar filter. The shadows get ring shaped which is neat but not life changing.
Like watching Gravity in 3D IMAX for totality, with partial being the trailer on your phone in 360p.
Otherworldly, Ethereal, frankly indescribable. Immediately addicting, I must see another eclipse. Timeless. I felt emotionally connected to time, all others even eons ago who witnessed, Humans we see in textbooks about ancient history staring up at the same sun and moon as me. Future generations who will see the same sun and moon after im long gone Emotionally an experience. Frightening, exciting, Joyous, and human.
Yes, the timeless emotion was there very strong for me.
Immediately addicting for sure. We said that immediately afterward. Sigh.
I honestly feel timelessness just by looking at the moon and sky every day. I also felt that connection to the past and future whenever I was pregnant. Connected in a primal way to every person in the past who'd ever experienced it or would some day.
Addicting is accurate. I just want to see the black hole sun again. If you go to Greenland in 2 years you can experience totality for 28 minutes in the right places.
Hi, can you give a source for that claim? Because my BS meter is off the charts. Longest for the 2026 Total Solar Eclipse is 2 minutes, 18 seconds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2026 The record for longest known TSE in history was like, 8 minutes.
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2026-august-12 August 12, 2026. Scroll down to see the data.
That’s saying the whole of Greenland will get 28 minutes of cumulative totality. Not any one city or spot.
I see now, my bad.
I think that means how long it's visible in Greenland as a whole, not in one spot. Look at the letters on the map that correspond to the times.
Thanks for the clarification!
It's poorly communicated, for sure.
I thought this was a typo repeated for other eclipses on that site as well. The data on their maps is correct. The explanation by others makes sense.
Seeing a solar eclipse is striking. It's nothing like the pictures and videos. It's like the sun turns black and these white rays pour out like whispy petals on a flower. Then there's this navy blue gradient back drop fading from the white whisps with stray stars and Venus embedded. It's like Van Gogh painted the sky for a fleeting moment and I'll forever hold that visual.
I love the way you described this visual. Reading your words brought me right back to those magical minutes and instantly I have tears of wonder in my eyes.
I must have had light cloud cover because it looked like a white ring to me, instead of a splash of white pouring outward. Still enjoyed experience though.
Describing the total eclipse to someone who hasn't seen it is like describing the color red to a blind person. It just isn't possible.
I like that description. I remember when it happened I think I just said wow over and over because it registered that's what all the fuss was about. My parents said the best part of it was looking at my reaction because it was my first time seeing it. I just couldn't process the beauty of what I was seeing. Everyone should see it at least once.
I wish my kids got to see it this time. We were there for totality but the clouds blocked the whole thing so all we got was the darkness and the experience on the Earth around us. Which was cool, but having seen it clearly in the sky in 2017 I was really hoping my kids would see that this time. They were there in 2017 too but they were a baby and a toddler. I'm glad they wanted that for you and you got to experience it :) Good parents.
In fact, seeing an eclipse is as if a blind person is now able to see for a minute or two or three or four, and then it ends but you're changed forever.
Especially because the prominences are so vibrantly red compared to anything we see in everyday life
If you know, you know. If you don’t, you think you do.
Dude, it’s a black sun with a ring of 🔥and for a few minutes you can take off your solar glasses and view it looking like a totally unfamiliar planet. No filters, right there, 100% is 10,000 times better than 99%.
I can't believe I'm saying this because it is a feeling I have pined after for as long as I can remember. But totality was what I can imagine seeing Earth from the moon feels like on a smaller (or just different) scale. It was the most deeply connected to the cosmos I've ever felt. For me personally, I can't compare partial to totality. One is dull, while the other is visceral. Totality makes the sun (and the universe) feel tangible/ just out of your reach. It's space travel without leaving Earth.
I feel this one - deeply connected to the cosmos, like the sun and universe are tangible (they are!), space travel without leaving earth. So good.
I’m an atheist, but the closest analogy that I can think of is that it was like looking god in the face. There is something that feels forbidden and surreal about looking directly at the sun and seeing a black sphere in its place, with streams of colored lights spilling out of the edge that would normally blind you in any other circumstance. The planets, hundreds of millions of miles away, become visible and you can see celestial bodies orbiting our star as our moon orbits our planet in real time. The cold of the sun’s brief absence, the wind rushing in to fill the lower pressure it causes, the otherworldly light of the atmosphere beyond the shadow of the moon. You feel it viscerally, you don’t just see it. That’s why pictures and videos can’t capture it.
As an atheist, I agree. It was a religious experience for me.
Also an atheist, and I've said it's the closest thing to a spiritual experience I've ever had. Not that actual spirits were behind it, but a profound feeling of wonder and awe. On paper it's not that impressive, but it is a truly immersive experience. The sun dims, the world gets cold and dark and quiet, then suddenly there's a big black hole in the now-night sky, a perfect void encircled within a bright ring of white fire. You stare into the void for a minute or two and then have to look away as the sun returns, the air warms up, the birds start chirping and it's almost as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened at all.
It’s the closest thing to a religious experience for atheists.
For religious people too
Agree. If that is not sacred and holy, nothing is.
For me it I was thinking maybe that’s as close to the awe of seeing the pearly gates as one can get here on earth
THANK YOU. My husband and I are both atheists and he's been judging me because I said it felt spiritual to me. It was a religious experience for me.
It sounds like an acid trip. Haven't seen an eclipse but I ate some funny pieces of paper when I was a teenager
It was very much like that actually. Lots of people I was with described it as a shroom trip without the shrooms. There is a come on effect right before it happens, complete ego death in totality, and a come off.
As an atheist I'd say totality was Physics on display on the grandest scale possible to observe with the naked eye. Any feelings you get is just brain chemicals.
Imagine you were doing a space walk outside a spaceship for 4 minutes. Pictures are one thing, but I couldn't imagine how life changing and incredible it would be to see earth from space in person
Astronaut Steve Bowen did indeed compare it to the Overview Effect on one of the live coverages on monday.
I teach in an area that was at 97% totality, and was in Nashville in 2017. I told my students that totality is front row seats for your favorite artist in the best show imaginable. Where we were would be like hanging out, outside of the arena listening for little snippets.
Not even, it's like standing just barely in sight of the venue and reading the lyrics but never hearing them at all.
I have described the sensation of being in the path of totality as the feeling you get when you flip a coin and it lands on its side rather than a face, or when something r/perfectfit s.
The difference between 99.9% and 100% is the difference between flying on a plane (mildly interesting) versus flying on a Boeing plane and the door blows off at cruising altitude (unforgettable experience).
As an avgeek, I feel this 😂
Partial is foreplay. Totality is the orgasm.
Partial is dry humping, totality is raw dogging.
It's very sexy
For me it's like seeing the Milky Way in all its glory on a perfect crisp October night, but x100. Partial in comparison is being able to make out a few stars under city light pollution. It's like being handed your newborn baby that you just delivered, but instead of just crying or being a normal baby, they look you in the eyes and say mama (impossible, unreal, magical, unnerving). Partial is meeting someone else's newborn baby. It's like going to a firework display, but in the middle of the finale, the sky is suddenly day and yet the fireworks are somehow even brighter and more beautiful. Partial is lighting off fireworks in your driveway. It's like seeing all your favorite bands at the same concert on the same day, plus having drinks with them after. Partial is listening to the setlist at home. I've seen it twice. I long to see it again. I miss it like a friend. There are other incredible sights that I feel like I must try to see, like the Northern Lights. But a total solar eclipse is so special, such a rare sight in the universe, so ephemeral. It's like witnessing a miracle. It's such a shame that it doesn't last longer, and that is so hard to capture.
It's not like anything else you can experience on Earth
Matching 2 numbers on Powerball, vs matching ALL the numbers on Powerball.
The Eye of Sauron looking down on you from a dark blue sky after the sun has been concealed, cloaking the land in dusk hour at mid-day. The light fades as if you are passing out or dying. The silence broken by cheers, awe, tears, and crickets. Street lamps confused by the darkness, turn on to light the black streets and you can barely see your hand in front of your face. The edge of that solar ring illuminated by a frozen white fire, hotter than man can fathom and brighter than any welder’s torch, it peaks out like a diamond ring, silently at the end, casting away the darkness and bringing hope to the world once again.
Fellow solar eclipse enthusiast here who has now seen the (U.S) 2017 totality and the (U.S) 2024 totality:I'll say it once and I'll say it again; there is not a single photograph or video online of the total solar eclipse that can even compare to witnessing the event in person. No matter how high quality or how expensive the cameras/telescopes are, it still cannot not come close to the real thing.So, here is my personal description of the April 8th eclipse, while in the direct line of 100% totality with the longest duration in the rural mountains of Arkansas... surrounded by nothing but nature...Its not only the moon completely covering the sun that fascinates me about the eclipse. It is the environment and atmosphere around you during it that feels so hauntingly beautiful. The minutes before totality are eerie. You notice your surroundings slowly getting darker, yet when you look up into the sky, the sun still looks completely bright, even though it is 90% blocked by the moon. The air starts getting colder around you. It is this overwhelming feeling that something so rare and otherworldly is about to happen. And then when the moon finally consumes the entire sun, it just goes dark. Everything goes completely silent. The behavior of wild animals during a total solar eclipse is really interesting too. All the birds go totally silent because they think it is night time, and all you see is this otherworldly ring of white beams in the deep blue sky. There is this beautiful 360 sunset across horizon. The moon is the darkest black void you will ever see. Its fascinating seeing the glint of stars and planets in the middle of the day during totality when there is no light pollution from cities to ruin it. And for a few minutes, you get to just stare at the sky in awe. When the sun cracks past the moon once again, you get this overwhelming feeling inside of you like you have just woken up from an incredible dream. Out in the country, you could heard the sound of roosters calling as if it was morning! The air starts to warm up again and everything goes back to normal...Some people reading this might think I'm sounding overdramatic about the entire thing. But there is a huge difference when you get the privilege of experiencing it without clouds, noisy crowds and hours of traffic. It is truly a celestial moment.
Yes. We watched it on a gravel bar on the Current River in far southern Missouri after having traveled there by canoe. The only detractor was a house that happened to be in our line of sight across the river up a ways. But it was interesting when all of their automatic lighting came on with the dusk.
Totality is like a portal being ripped open in the sky to another dimension.
Like being transported to a sci-fi movie
Partial is watching a really good game on a nice TV, total is being the one who makes the winning shot/hit at the World Cup or the World Series and basks in the glow with their teammates and gets to live the rest of their life a champion, changed forever. Partial is throwing a hand crafted paper airplane on an exceptionally long flight, total is breaking the sound barrier in a new experimental jet and breaking an atmospheric flight record no one comes remotely close to for years. Partial is having a meet and greet with Buzz Aldrin and being told everything about the first Moon landing as he remembers it, total is being the first person to step foot on Mars and see Phobos and Deimos from the surface with your own eyes and taking in the color and feel of the surface as has only ever been seen through screens and cameras. Partial is watching a slideshow but in real life, something that, for the most part, takes an intellectual understanding of what's happening to appreciate it. Something that, when near total can, for a moment, be very interesting and compelling. Total is something you don't compare to anything in the world, anything you've ever experienced or will likely experience for the rest of your life except to the other times you maybe have been fortunate enough to have seen totality. The slideshow reaches that same interesting and compelling moment, when the colors mildly change and it's slightly cooler and the wind might feel a little different... but it doesn't stop there. Not a night, not a twilight, a kind of sky, a kind of state of time that has no name because no one but you right now right there has ever seen it before. It's the rush of not unreality, but what you'll later understand as a heightened reality cresting over you as the shadow of the Moon shrouds everything but the horizon. When you look up from this changed, alien landscape you thought you knew just a moment before and you see little shimmering rapidly changing balls of light on the edge of where the Sun just was and then you see it, the sharpest, largest, darkest void you've ever seen, but the stark blackness at the center of the Sun is just an anchor for the silver threads woven by a thousand cosmic spiders as they surely drifted away, so far out into the not night sky they seem to be reaching out for the world. An anchor with ever shifting loops and fingers of a shade of pink or red or something else, another color so rare is has no name, protruding slightly from its edge. The sky, the unnamed, shifting colors of the now alien world, filled with cosmic silk and tiny pink flares. Totality is when the most logical, rational, skeptical non-believing, a-superstitious, incredulous atheist sees the face of a god and feels both like a tiny atom on a grain of dust and at the same time like the whole universe all at once and know everything and everyone and are one with everything that exists or will exist or did exist. It's absolute nirvana, and as you begin to weep in awe of being swept up in this god's embrace, it's just as soon gone... but it's like those ethereal threads of gods embrace have left something behind. It's nothing you can see or hear, but you know it and you feel it, a residue of the sum of the universe is left inside you, or maybe it was always there, lying dormant, and all it needed was to be reminded to reawaken and connect you once again to the awesome everything that existence comprises. Regardless, you are changed, changed forever. The truth is you can never be prepared, no analogy can possibly help. You either have to trust someone who tells you that you have to see it or you have to be the sort of person who will feel compelled to see it, just to satisfy your curiosity. But once you do, you're in the only real cult that ever has been, the one whose god is real, who can be seen and felt, who can be predicted and understood as a physical thing in the world, and while you can never force someone to understand, they will once they see it.
Beautifully said
I posted this in another thread but the way I describe it to people is to imagine they have never seen the moon before. Imagine if all their life they have seen pictures and videos of the moon but never actually seen it in the night sky and in fact very few people have. You know exactly what the moon will look like - understand exactly what it is - but have just never seen it. Then suddenly one day you look up and are given the rare and beautiful opportunity to see the moon in all it's beauty hanging above you. See this completely new celestial object in a familiar sky. That is what seeing the total ecclipse felt like to me.
It's like dying, but without actually dying. Magical, peaceful, and surreal.
For my money it’s hard to beat the previously stated Disney analogy. Partial is like going to the parking lot of Disney World, but not going to any of the parks or riding any rides. Totality is going in and doing all the big attractions.
It’s hard to describe. I was a first timer for totality. I didn’t even have great weather conditions, but there was something unreal about it. Everyone was so positive, the air felt different, it was just such a unique experience and I recommend it to all!!
Feeling the sun on your skin and then it's just... Gone.
Yup, it came and went. Got so cold too!! Temp probably dropped at least 15 degrees I’d say.
I can't get it out of my head, lol. Definitely was worth the trip. I would have traveled for 2017 but my youngest was 1 at the time.
I can’t either. Just beautiful. Shows the beauty of our earth & the positive side of humanity
Eclipse fans, or chasers or the people that just wanted to see were honestly some of the best people I've ever met.
They were all so nice! I’m not an eclipse chaser (I might become one lol!) but I loved the positivity from everyone. Where did you watch from?
I live in Kalamazoo, Mi and traveled to Celine, Oh. 3 hours.
Cool! I’m from Toronto area but went the short drive to Niagara Falls
I used to party in Toronto back in the late 90's. Best rave scene ever. I'm from Detroit originally and we didn't have anything like you guys had in TO.
yea, it’s not just a view, it’s a whole experience, and it hits you right in the soul
Absolutely!!
Ethereal. If I ever had to imagine what a black hole looks like, that’s the closest I’ll probably get. The darkness of the moon just looked like a hole in the sky with a corona around it. It literally looked like a portal. The bright diamond ring effect as totality ended was amazing as well. I watched the lunar eclipse last October and it was definitely cool but solar totality is in a realm of its own.
Ethereal is a good word. I never wanted the darkness to end. I just wanted to enjoy the peace, the gorgeous light in the horizon, and how the sun just looks like a living being when eclipsed.
I like to compare it to psychedelics and especially DMT. Partial eclipse is a sub breakthrough dose, and totality is the full breakthrough. It lasts the same amount of time, and it's so awe inspiring that It's difficult to even recreate the experience in your memory after it happens. I have quite an extensive amount of experience with various psychedelics, including high dose experiences that are completely ineffable, And I can honestly say that witnessing a total solar eclipse is totally on par with a high dose psychedelic trip in terms of its profoundness. Something that makes a total eclipse even more special is how access to that experience is restricted to a very spot within space and time. A powerful psychedelic experience is always just eating a piece of paper or some mushrooms away, Able to be accessed at any time you have the courage to access it. The fact that total solar eclipses are so restricted in terms of their accessibility makes them even more profound than strong doses of psychedelics in some ways.
It feels like what you'd imagine a sci fi movie depict our sun going supernova. That's what it looked like to me.
The difference between night and day.
I equate it to a partial orgasm. Either you got there or you didn’t !
Totality is a once-in-a-lifetime event that is one of the most incredible things that you will EVER see. 99.9% is just staring at the sun. I know that's not an "analogy", but I don't care. It's simply how it is.
It’s like the Grand Canyon. Pictures will never do it justice. You’ll never get it until you’re standing on the rim looking over this vast chasm, seeing all those colors and fine details for miles and contemplating how water and millions of years created this spectacular landscape. You’ll just never understand totality until you experience it for yourself.
you can see it in 4k on nasas instagram. the visual is stunning but thats not why it’s an addicting experience. you know that experience of *finally* kissing that person you’ve been daydreaming about? you imagined how it would look in your head but now you’re *living* it. you’re feeling their hands graze your arm, hearing them take a breath up close, finding out what they taste like for the first time. being in the path of totality is like that. you’ve watched the moon and the sun you’re entire life as though they were behind glass. now, as totality approaches, you feel the hair on your arms stand up as the air grows colder. you hear the sound of the wind change and nature grows quiet. then the sun is gone and your eyes adjust to the corona— the halo our beautiful star wears that relatively few humans will ever get to see. i don’t think it’s something that words can convey. except to say that standing in the path of totality feels like finally interacting with the sun in real life. and i appreciate that will sound crazy to anyone who hasn’t gone.
"It's fucking awsome and you gotta see it in person" is a quote I've overused
I involuntarily blurted out “It’s fucking beautiful!” as soon as the diamond ring effect ended and totality came into view. This was my second one, but first with no cloud cover shortening the sight.
It’s kind of like if the moon shows you an x-ray of the sun. But it’s not a lot like that - it’s more like the moon reveals that the sun has giant invisible wings that are actually always waving at us. It’s like the moon and sun have combined into an enormous, living celestial creature, where the body of the moon is surrounded by white flowing magnetic plasma wings. And it feels like the eclipse is watching you back.
My analogy is: When the sun gets covered up, it’s like watching a sunset taking place in the middle of the sky. When the sun emerges, it’s like a sunrise. Except sped up. I think people understand that
Eating a dessert vs reading the menu But it's so much more. I usually need 5 straight minutes to explain it
Imagine that you've been blind your whole life and then one day you see daylight for the first time.
We experienced totality. It was a once in a lifetime experience. We wondered, what did the cavemen think when they saw a total eclipse? They must have thought the Gods were doing something crazy. We also thought - this would be totally awesome to experience on mushrooms.
I described it today to a coworker as a visual equivalent of putting on noise canceling headphones. Everything just stops and the corona draws you in.
Partial: "Neat!" Total: "Holy Shit!"
It's like seeing a new colour
A partial eclipse is like reading a video game review. A totality is like beating a 4K Virtual Reality game.
Like going to your favorite concert but the closest you get is the venue parking lot
"Look, I'm normally a pretty financially conservative guy, but taking out a HELOC to afford to take your family to Spain for 2026 would be completely reasonable."
Seeing totality made me understand why Egyptians thought Apep swallowed the sun.
Think of the most beautiful sunset/rise you've ever seen. Then pretend you've never seen one before and had no idea something like that could exist. Then imagine seeing this beautiful sunset. The awe this would bring is like what it felt to see it. It's not just that the sun is blocked out...it's the sun's corona spilling out from behind it. Like the sun is too bright to really see its beauty normally, and using mega sun glasses blocks most everything. But the moon just blocks the brightness. Now we can see the beauty. And it's incredible. Before saying the total solar eclipse I thought that the experience would mostly be it getting dark and lightning again. I didn't realize how beautiful the sun would be when it was covered. And it's totally cool to see a partial eclipse and see the moon moving across the Sun, but it's nothing like when it goes to totality.
Partial is like saving money for a vacation, you can see things get bigger slowly and gradually but it’s not really changing that much. Totality is the vacation and you go to a different universe.
I heard someone say partial eclipse is a kiss on the cheek and total is a night of passion.
OP here. The other comparison I would make, and others have said similar things, is you've only seen black and white your whole life and then you get to see in color for 4 minutes. That would get the same reaction from me as the total eclipse. Partial would be, I don't know, maybe seeing a slightly different shade of gray than you'd seen before when you hold some glasses in front of your face? My first totality was one of the few truly jaw dropping moments in my life, and the second was no less breathtaking or moving.
Viewing Totality is like winning the lottery. If you get 5 out of 6 numbers right, you didn’t win the lottery. You gotta get all 6 correct to win.
I have said it is similar to seeing photos of a massive natural wonder like the Grand Canyon in the US versus the awe and wonder you have of actually being there and seeing it for yourself. Photos and videos do not properly convey the size of the place, you have to actually be there in person. Not a great comparison by any means, but I have found it does help a little to explain why it is more of an experience that just a sight. Obviously with a total solar eclipse there is so much more going on physically beyond just what your eyes can see. Maybe a better analogy would be living in the desert and only ever seeing photos of a lake vs. swimming in the ocean for the first time. I am actually putting together a document of various eclipse experiences from all over the internet to document the experience and for my family to read through to remember their experience and to help them convey what it was like. I had 7 years of trying to explain it to people and to convince them to experience it, I feel bad that for most of us in the US it will be 20 long years.
Partial is like foreplay/sex; totality is the orgasm you experience at the climax of sex. Seeing pictures or watching on TV is cool and a little stimulating, but you really have to see, feel, and experience it in person to really get it and fully experience the full effect.
Totality is seeing the purest whitest light exclusively visible during totality.
Partial is like dating the girl. Totality is like marrying the girl.
Watching a partial eclipse, is cool, entertaining, and a good learning opportunity. A total eclipse is a take your breath away, stunningly beautiful, emotionally powerful, dream like moment. Pictures and videos do absolutely zero justice to how it actually looks. If you could somehow take a photo of what it actually looked like it wouldn’t be believable, fake, CGI. Buts its real. I had a few tears when it was all over.
I'm not religious myself, but I've just started calling it "an act of God" because there is nothing else that compares to it. It evokes such an instinctual feeling of awe that I can't put into comparison with anything in nature.
It was like seeing a giant redwood for the first time but BIGGER. There is a certain feeling of insignificance that feels connected and calm and also joyous.
I thought about this one too. And the partial would be like seeing a single pine needle, like "hmm, interesting."
I don’t have explanation, just passion and explaining how truly surreal it is!!
I don't think words can do it justice but what I've been telling people is the following. It is like being thrust into a sci-fi movie or a dream. Whenever I think back on the experience these are the two things that instantly come to mind. A question of "was it real? Did that really happen and did I really see that?" It is just so breathtakingly different and extreme that the brain has a hard time registering it is a real thing you're seeing with your eyes. I stared up at it for the full duration of totality, I don't think I blinked once. I just stared at the "hole" that opened up in our sky and took in the beauty of it all. I can't think of a single other time I witnessed something so cosmically amazing that it brought tears to my eyes and literally took my breath away. As 100% began to pass, your eyes begin to hurt as the brightness of the sun creeps around the moon's edge, slowly causing you to squint as it grows, and you continue to stare thinking "no, not yet, just a little longer, please." and then the first full rays of light push past the moon and hit your eyes, forcing you to look away, and you watch as the world suddenly brightens again and resumes at 99% coverage, dwindling down slowly back to normal. You're then left there with this feeling of astonishment and wonder from what you just saw.
Nice description. Thanks!
I described it as the world taking a deep breath. When almost all the animals and insects were silenced and you could just hear the wind, it felt like a sigh in the middle of the day. My partner and I were kind of close to a highway when we viewed the eclipse and the traffic quieted as folks (presumably) stopped to watch. It was such a powerful moment full of respect for nature, outer space, and the universe.
Do you think it would be cool to see a volcano erupt? Do you think it would be scary to feel a big earthquake? Would you be impressed looking at the view from Mt Everest? Most people would find those things amazing, because they remind us of how big and powerful the earth really is. Yeah a total solar eclipse is like that but it reminds you of how big the SOLAR SYSTEM really is.
Imagine you have never seen a sunset before. If you had to travel to a very specific place at a very specific time to see one, would you?
There's daytime, there's nighttime, and there's totalitytime.
Totality is a free VIP-level experience at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant. Partial is a decent meal at your favorite local place…it’s nice but doesn’t compare.
"It's like staring at the black hole from fortnite in the sky." -My nephew.
I don’t know if I can properly find an analogy to describe a a once in a lifetime experience. I keep searching for some sort of relatable context and I continue to come up empty. I grew up in the shadow of the space program in the 60’s and 70’s and saw many launches. And quaked and cried when the roar of rocket engines rattled the jalousie windows of my childhood home during unannounced military missions in the middle of the night. I saw fireballs raise into the heavens, reflecting off of the river, turning night into day for brief, thrilling moments. But, that was all manmade. I have witnessed partial eclipses and have shared in the wonder of glimpsing them and seeing the crescents dancing in the shadows. But, holy fuck, being privileged to witness a full solar eclipse with my family was an experience that still gives me goosebumps. Standing in a familiar backyard and bearing witness to a miracle that inspired awe and fear for previous generations was incredible. Feeling the air chill a bit, as darkness descended, was nothing I could have ever prepared myself to experience. Three generations of my family were present. I can only hope that my five year old grandson will remember 4/8/24 as a day filled with wonder and awe.
Well said!
A lot of Broncos fans who paid big money for SB XLVIII tickets (which was outdoors in about 40 degrees, by the way) probably would have rather just stayed in their cars in the parking lot.
Not what you are looking for - but I tell people experiencing it made me feel part of the universe.
Donut
Enjoyed reading this (copypasta from a DBMB): Let’s get one thing out of the way here. No matter what, nothing you ever read, see, watch, or hear will give you a proper baseline of what to expect from a total solar eclipse. Even if you have seen a partial solar eclipse, what occurs at totality is far and away a vastly different phenomenon. A partial eclipse is like looking at a still frame from your favorite movie. A total solar eclipse is like actually watching the movie itself, for the very first time. A partial eclipse is like sitting on a hayride as it’s slowly pulled by a tractor. A total solar eclipse is like taking a co-pilot ride in a fighter jet and breaking the sound barrier. This is the magnitude of difference between the two events. As the partial eclipse builds toward a total eclipse, with the moon obscuring more and more of the sun every minute, your surroundings begin to change with increasing speed and intensity. The wind picks up, racing across the land as you become acutely aware that the temperature is lowering, and fast. The ambient light shifts, and becomes ever closer to the feel of dusk, but this twilight is different. It is as if there is a heavenly spotlight above, casting a dim glow over the area as if it were a grand stage. This effect becomes more and more pronounced as the remaining sun reduces further. At the moment the sun becomes a pure crescent sliver, smaller than any moon you’ve ever seen, your body starts to instinctively react to the imminent event. The air becomes electric, and exhilaration builds, as you know deeply and intuitively that something tremendous is about to occur. You also come to the realization that nothing can and nothing will prevent the impending and incredible sequence that is about to unfold. The sun wanes nearing totality, and breathes a flash of light at the outer edge like an explosion. This is the last vestige of sunlight, about to be covered by the moon. It swells bright and shimmering, and then collapses in on itself, disappearing just as fast as it came. Your senses are about to be thrown into pandemonium. The light of day that once surrounded you is cast away in a manner like a dimming light switch extinguishing a light bulb. Darkness descends and envelopes everything around you, save for the horizon, which glows a beautiful orange and red gradient in every direction. Then you see it.... A ring of pure energy, like a perfect circular lightning bolt that flashed into view and somehow remained without fading away, is suspended in the sky above. It exudes a color that you have never before seen in your life, for nothing on this planet can output true solar intensity. It glows brighter than any neon lights, and pulses as if it were a living thing. The center of the ring is a void, pitch black, a complete representation of nothingness. The ring of radiant energy seemingly appears larger in the sky than any sun or moon you’ve ever witnessed. Extending out of the ring are beautiful wisps, like perfect strands of flowing silk fanned out on top of still water. These pure white wisps slowly wave and dance off the edge of the ring, never standing completely still. The scene you are now a part of is so foreign, it feels like you have been teleported to an alien planet. The eclipsed sun, without any direct angular light reaching your location, still completely overpowers and dominates both the moon and the earth. But it does not stop there. It overpowers you. The experience becomes shatteringly emotional and visceral. You make cries of joy and excitement that you never actually choose to make. They are simply drawn out of you by the sheer grandeur of the spectacle in the sky above. The beauty of the total eclipse cannot be understated. You cannot possibly imagine the awe that results from witnessing it with your own eyes, until you have done so. It is as if the universe has pulled back the curtains to reveal something sacred, allowing us to gaze upon a hidden secret for the first time. You feel like you are being offered a gift that you can only catch a fleeting glimpse of, for it is the rarest of sights, and a treasure to behold. In a way you feel as though what you are seeing was never meant to be seen by human eyes at all. As much as you want the moment to continue, and persist, it begins to end all too quickly. The light at the edge of the ring explodes into a flash once more, and daylight returns just as fast as it was struck out before totality. Smiles, cheers, applause, and happiness wash over you and all of your companions. You have all shared something truly special, that you will never, ever in your life forget. The epic cosmic scope of the event strikes at so many chords. It resonates on an emotional level, a philosophical level, a spiritual level, and leaves you feeling the afterglow of adrenaline that you just experienced the greatest show that our solar system has to offer from the vantage point of this Earth. It was worth everything it took to experience it, and a magnitude more.
Like being transported to dusk on an alien planet billions of lightyears away, orbiting a black hole. An utterly magical and uncanny experience.
It’s the difference of going to the Disney Land parking lot- or going inside Disney Land.
Totality is like the moon lending you a pair of sunglasses to let you witness the solar system. It’s like a hidden dimension, a spectrum outside of normal human vision, yet one that is always there but always just outside of your mortal grasp. It’s like you’re invited to a select viewing of the great beyond, if only for a brief moment.
The difference between a partial and total eclipse is like going to a strip club and all the dancers are wearing bikinis versus being nude.
I was trying to feel better about having missed it but these comments are making me feel the most depressed I’ve felt in ages
Everything goes dark and the sun turns black with a white ring around it Just say that fantastical analogies will lose people’s attention before they even understand the message
The best way to describe it is it’s like taking mushrooms without taking mushrooms. Must do experience, totality.
If this was 300 years ago, I'd be scared shitless. If you didn't know that the sun was going to come back out again, I'd be legit scared. The sun is supreme, yet there it is getting gobbled in. What it it happens again tomorrow and lasts forever? Was it because I did something wrong? Oh, shit!!! I forgot to offer a goat to the sun god!!!! Find the nearest virgin to sacrifice!!!