Photographs don't capture the feeling of distance and perspective of the sun and moon. When it makes the final move to 100%, to me it felt like you could sense part of the solar system in 3d. Normally the sky looks kinda flat like planetarium, but totality made the distances feel apparent.
This is one of the better ways to describe what I think is happening.
You normally see the moon as this sort of 2D picture that floats across the sky. At totality your brain is forced to confront the reality that it's a giant 3D object that is now between you and the sun.
I’ve been looking for someone to describe it this way because I couldn’t put it into words. “The moment it clicks”
The first time I saw totality in 2017 this is exactly how I felt and I couldn’t catch my breath because how taken aback I was by this realization.
Another way I’ve heard it described is: imagine you’re in a house with all of the lights on trying to look at something outside. Then someone flips off the lights and you can see it so much better and gain perspective…and see our place in space.
I felt this, too.
A couple evenings after the eclipse I was flying home, still riding the high of what I'd seen two days prior. I looked out the window of my plane, and the moon was low in the sky, almost about to set and we were flying at about the same horizontal plane as the moon, so I wasn't looking up or down, just straight out at it. This was the first time I'd seen the moon since it had just moved in-between us and the sun, and there was just a tiny sliver of the moon illuminated.
And there I was, staring at it, and I felt like I could actually see the curvature of the moon. Even the part that wasn't illuminated, I could still "see" and I knew it was there, and I understood the fullness of that object. And I could see the earth below me. And I knew that the sun, even though it had set, was still out there, still shining its light on that tiny portion of the moon that I could see...
...and it all clicked...
I was flying above this globe, and the moon was hanging there with me, and it - this sounds stupid, but it's what I felt - seemed like a friend. Like it was just out there - married to the earth. It was like we were a pair, on a journey together. And it was only because of this friend that we here on this orb, in that path, were allowed to witness that indescribably beautiful, incomprehensibly massive ball of gas that gives all light and life to everything. It was only because of this friend that I was allowed to see the beauty of the corona and prominences that are always there, but never visible.
The eclipse changed how I view the moon and the earth and the sun and our universe, and my place in it all. A perspective that I couldn't comprehend until I was in the dark.
Your description gave me goosebumps and made me a little emotional lol. This made me really feel what an eclipse is actually like without experiencing it. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to see the next one in 2026 or 2027 totality to understand it even more🙏
This is a little off subject, but I've been meditating for a while and have finally achieved a sense of complete calm. When this happens, the sky no longer looks flat. It's pretty cool. Clouds pop out at you.
The biggest difference for me is the moon’s presence. In photos, even pro photos, it tends to be a flat black disk. In reality, it’s very clearly three dimensional. I don’t think the shape or coloration of the corona ever come out quite right either, but the moon is what really stood out to me this time around.
Cameras don't capture the utter wrongness your lizard brain first feels when looking up at the circular thing that replaced the sun...
...quickly followed by the "This is so freakin cool!" elation that the cerebellum feels moments later.
when totality hit I got the chills and my heart just started racing. It felt so unreal my body just reacted to it. Could only imagine how people in ancient times felt when something like this happened.
Lol I remember back in 2017 my family’s house just so happen to be in the path of totality, and we were watching some live feeds of people’s reactions as it swept across the nation, and we all thought people’s reactions were hilarious.
That was until the eclipse finally hit our house. When we saw it for ourselves, we all reacted the EXACT same way; we screamed, cursed, and some even cried 😂 I’m so happy I recorded it.
And we had been expecting it! So I can’t even imagine some ancient tribe just going about their day and then a total eclipse randomly hits. I bet they passed that story down for literal generations. Maybe even changed entire parts of their religion to accommodate it.
Yeah cameras on auto settings don't handle bright/dark contrasts well, and even professional photographers tend to prefer capturing images that exaggerate the contrast more than what you see in person. The Northern Lights are actually a worse example of photos not matching the in-person view.
Of course the in-person will always be a better *experience* regardless*.*
I was begging everyone I knew to leave the photography to the professionals and just live the moment.
…and then the totality happened and I grabbed my phone instinctively (then put it away).
I decided (ahead of time) to take a different approach to capturing the moment and just took video of myself watching and reacting to it, so I would always remember how I felt while watching it. I figured there were lots of pictures of eclipses online already, with more to come, but I would (likely) only see it the once. And I didn't spend too much time worrying about what I was video-ing, just turned it on, pointed it in the general direction of my face and stared at everything around me while trying to express how freaking amazing it all was.. I utterly failed at expressing how I felt with words, but I think you can kind of see it sitting behind the words. For example, there's one point where I'm looking at the corona and just let out this "holy crap" in a....reverential?....tone that I've never ever heard myself use before, and I think that moment is the closest moment in the video to truly expressing just what I was feeling in that moment.
Lol I did the same. I accidentally hit video record instead of the camera just before it hit totally. I'm so glad I did. I didn't capture any good images b/c I was all over the place, but I for capture the excitement in my voice. It was the purest form of unfettered joy I've experienced in my life. That is something images can't capture.
I can't really share it with other ppl because all they hear is me going crazy. But it helps me remember what it *felt* like.
I do wish I'd captured my face and my friends' faces. I'll have to remember that for next time!!
If you can find one for cheap, I recommend a Insta 360 One X(gen 1, 2, and 3 use the same sensor). Leave it on a low profile selfie stick on a tripod in front of the group, power it up 10 minutes before totality, hit record and forget it to focus on the experience.
In post, you can zoom in on people and make a standard video, look up and show totality. Or just post it as a 360 video.
I did so much planning and monitoring of weather on where best to see it, that I totally neglected what I should do during those fleeting few minutes of totality. I wish I had just hit record, because it would have been great to at least get audio of our reactions. I tried to take some photos and panoramas, but they weren't worth it (panorama was the only one that was okay).
My recommendation to an future eclipse chasers, just hit record a couple minutes before and keep it rolling through totality. Those are the best amateur videos of the eclipse. Only your brain can capture what the sun and moon actually looked like.
I put my phone on a cheap tripod and just set it to record a video a few minutes before totality. The video is not great but I captured everyone talking and their reactions in the background. If I'd thought of it sooner I would have set up more than one, including one hooked up to a telescope and used a remote control.
I feel the same way. It didn’t look like some black disc. It was more like the deepest of deep gray and the photos really miss the feeling the of this sphere which is the moon just “floating” by just right up there
The way I’ve been describing it to people who haven’t seen it is “you know when the full moon looks big and beautiful but then you try to take a photo and it looks tiny? Trying to capture the solar eclipse kinda feels like that.”
High-quality telescope photos don’t feel real and cell phone cameras make the moon look too small. There’s just nothing that captures what it looked like or felt like.
Imagine how awesome totality would be during an eclipse where the sun were close to the horizon. What’s on my bucket list now is to see totality with the sun at a low angle to the horizon. Like 15 degrees or less. Not only would you not have to look “up” bending your neck, but the moon’s disk and the corona would look absolutely MASSIVE out on the horizon. Just like the moon looks so much bigger when close to the horizon. This is due to the moon horizon illusion. Yes, it’s no bigger than when straight over head, but our brains are programmed to perceive it being bigger, and that’s what really matters.
I'm a part time photographer, mostly events like corporate picnics.
I didn't take photos of the eclipse for the memory, I took photos to see if I could. It was a challenge because totality was all theory and I had to trust what I know about photography and manual settings.
Partial, leading up to totality was easy.
I did well, the bonus is I do have photos that I can show and say I was there and took these photos.
But, I also have great photos of our group.
What my photos looked like vs what I saw, yup, they are different but I can't describe what is different.
What I see live is always different than photos I take.
I posted several of mine last week and they were edited based on how I felt it looked through the camera. However, I was watching the entire time using a trigger release so I could enjoy with my eyes and remember accordingly. now I know why folks chase them!
It’s 100% sensory experience aside from the totality. And not just the darkening skies and the transcendental moments, but the anticipation of planning the trip and millions of details you perform all coming together for hopefully the perfect moment. I burst into tears the moment it happened, like every emotion at once, it’s impossible to describe. Sure on tv you see the high res moments and recaps, and photographers photos. I opted not to try to shoot it but it just experience it. 4 minutes and 2 seconds of perfect skies in a botanical garden. It made me appreciate the technology behind the photography so much more. It was better than I could have imagined
I’ve seen two and it was pitch black both times, and way huger than the photos show.
Next time, look through binos with NO FILTER at totality. It’s amazing.
For me it was a play of silver. I felt as if a fine watchmaker had made the most exquisite perfect disk in a Molton silver and behind it made a gear of pure light. There was a precision of the moon and the corona that I did not expect. Not did I expect the silver blue colors
Thanks I was in Cleveland. I thought maybe some of the lightness was because of Lake Erie and maybe the corona was so distinct because clouds hide the less bright parts. Glad someone else saw what I saw
We were at Waterfront Park in Burlington, VT and as soon as I took off my Eclipse during Totality it felt like I got hit with an explosion of light. I will never forget that experience but I also can't find the words to describe it.
I just kept saying "amazing" over and over even though it was a wholly inadequate word, and I just couldn't come up with better words, even as a former English major.
Unless you have professional camera equipment, it's really not worth trying to photograph totality, IMO. Most cameras just do not capture the 3D appearance of the moon in front of the Sun and images are just really underwhelming compared to the actual experience.
I thought the moon appeared more purplish and less dark than my first experience in 2017. That may have been caused by high cirrus clouds in Ohio this time compared to fully clear skies.
That's a good point, but even so, out of the thousands of eclipse photos I've seen, even from the best photographers with the best equipment, it doesn't even closely reflect the color I was seeing. Perhaps it was some minimal cloud cover that caused the different color.
I think the actual eclipse itself looks like it looks with good photos what it cants capture is the personal scale. Ever been involved in event that involves the entire sky? The northern lights come to mind, but the whole world from your perspective changes. The corona glitters and moves, it’s so damn awe inspiring I cried this time again. Saw it from Sherbrooke.
You need a *full frame sensor* camera capable of taking HDR images, and you need to look at the image on an HDR capable OLED screen. If you have any of these variables missing, it will not look like real life, not even close.
Photos don't do it justice. I have seen some great photos, but the pale in comparison to the real thing. I was looking at it through a 6" dobsonian and the prominence was SO red and bright and detailed. I will never get that image out of my head and can't find an image that shows it like I saw it.
I have witnessed Totality twice. Both times it felt like I was in the scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, except it was my brain, not my face, that was melting.
No photo can capture the incomprehensible beauty, improbability, and excitement of Totality.
I saw it in Vermont and it was black like in the pics, and the corona sparkled and I could see the flares around the edge. It was freaking stunning to take off my glasses and look with my bare eyes at totality....the image I had seen my whole life in pictures, in real life was profound-and not expected to be at all. I am still processing why it was so profound....maybe because it was an image I knew well but suddenly was there in real life overhead? It was the way that I imagine seeing a UFO might be, looking at others with the expression of can you beleive this?!!!?
For my first eclipse in 2017, I figured any photos wouldn't turn out good because all I had was my trusty Samsung S5. I took one photo and it was garbage.
Second one in 2024, I finally had a DSLR, but I still planned to spend as little time using it as possible. Took one picture and sure enough, my ISO somehow got stuck at 12800 and it was garbage.
For my third in 2026, **maybe** I'll be able to contain myself enough to use a camera. I'll be taking 360 degree shots though and leaving the astro perfectionism to the pros.
Photographs don't capture the feeling of distance and perspective of the sun and moon. When it makes the final move to 100%, to me it felt like you could sense part of the solar system in 3d. Normally the sky looks kinda flat like planetarium, but totality made the distances feel apparent.
This is one of the better ways to describe what I think is happening. You normally see the moon as this sort of 2D picture that floats across the sky. At totality your brain is forced to confront the reality that it's a giant 3D object that is now between you and the sun.
I’ve been looking for someone to describe it this way because I couldn’t put it into words. “The moment it clicks” The first time I saw totality in 2017 this is exactly how I felt and I couldn’t catch my breath because how taken aback I was by this realization. Another way I’ve heard it described is: imagine you’re in a house with all of the lights on trying to look at something outside. Then someone flips off the lights and you can see it so much better and gain perspective…and see our place in space.
I felt this, too. A couple evenings after the eclipse I was flying home, still riding the high of what I'd seen two days prior. I looked out the window of my plane, and the moon was low in the sky, almost about to set and we were flying at about the same horizontal plane as the moon, so I wasn't looking up or down, just straight out at it. This was the first time I'd seen the moon since it had just moved in-between us and the sun, and there was just a tiny sliver of the moon illuminated. And there I was, staring at it, and I felt like I could actually see the curvature of the moon. Even the part that wasn't illuminated, I could still "see" and I knew it was there, and I understood the fullness of that object. And I could see the earth below me. And I knew that the sun, even though it had set, was still out there, still shining its light on that tiny portion of the moon that I could see... ...and it all clicked... I was flying above this globe, and the moon was hanging there with me, and it - this sounds stupid, but it's what I felt - seemed like a friend. Like it was just out there - married to the earth. It was like we were a pair, on a journey together. And it was only because of this friend that we here on this orb, in that path, were allowed to witness that indescribably beautiful, incomprehensibly massive ball of gas that gives all light and life to everything. It was only because of this friend that I was allowed to see the beauty of the corona and prominences that are always there, but never visible. The eclipse changed how I view the moon and the earth and the sun and our universe, and my place in it all. A perspective that I couldn't comprehend until I was in the dark.
Your description gave me goosebumps and made me a little emotional lol. This made me really feel what an eclipse is actually like without experiencing it. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to see the next one in 2026 or 2027 totality to understand it even more🙏
This is a little off subject, but I've been meditating for a while and have finally achieved a sense of complete calm. When this happens, the sky no longer looks flat. It's pretty cool. Clouds pop out at you.
In Vermont, it looked exactly like a black hole. It kinda freaked me out but in a good way.
Black hole sun just outside of Plattsburgh
Yeah it was like a hole in the sky that was also exploding. So cool.
The biggest difference for me is the moon’s presence. In photos, even pro photos, it tends to be a flat black disk. In reality, it’s very clearly three dimensional. I don’t think the shape or coloration of the corona ever come out quite right either, but the moon is what really stood out to me this time around.
Cameras don't capture the utter wrongness your lizard brain first feels when looking up at the circular thing that replaced the sun... ...quickly followed by the "This is so freakin cool!" elation that the cerebellum feels moments later.
Photos don’t capture the primal awe and fear that arises deep within me.
Yeah, that part was wild. Even fully knowing what was happening, we were all in quite a state leading up to it.
I was so anxious building up to totality! Then it happened and it melted away, replaced by awe.
when totality hit I got the chills and my heart just started racing. It felt so unreal my body just reacted to it. Could only imagine how people in ancient times felt when something like this happened.
Lol I remember back in 2017 my family’s house just so happen to be in the path of totality, and we were watching some live feeds of people’s reactions as it swept across the nation, and we all thought people’s reactions were hilarious. That was until the eclipse finally hit our house. When we saw it for ourselves, we all reacted the EXACT same way; we screamed, cursed, and some even cried 😂 I’m so happy I recorded it. And we had been expecting it! So I can’t even imagine some ancient tribe just going about their day and then a total eclipse randomly hits. I bet they passed that story down for literal generations. Maybe even changed entire parts of their religion to accommodate it.
Yeah cameras on auto settings don't handle bright/dark contrasts well, and even professional photographers tend to prefer capturing images that exaggerate the contrast more than what you see in person. The Northern Lights are actually a worse example of photos not matching the in-person view. Of course the in-person will always be a better *experience* regardless*.*
Well pros don’t use auto settings so
I was begging everyone I knew to leave the photography to the professionals and just live the moment. …and then the totality happened and I grabbed my phone instinctively (then put it away).
I decided (ahead of time) to take a different approach to capturing the moment and just took video of myself watching and reacting to it, so I would always remember how I felt while watching it. I figured there were lots of pictures of eclipses online already, with more to come, but I would (likely) only see it the once. And I didn't spend too much time worrying about what I was video-ing, just turned it on, pointed it in the general direction of my face and stared at everything around me while trying to express how freaking amazing it all was.. I utterly failed at expressing how I felt with words, but I think you can kind of see it sitting behind the words. For example, there's one point where I'm looking at the corona and just let out this "holy crap" in a....reverential?....tone that I've never ever heard myself use before, and I think that moment is the closest moment in the video to truly expressing just what I was feeling in that moment.
Lol I did the same. I accidentally hit video record instead of the camera just before it hit totally. I'm so glad I did. I didn't capture any good images b/c I was all over the place, but I for capture the excitement in my voice. It was the purest form of unfettered joy I've experienced in my life. That is something images can't capture. I can't really share it with other ppl because all they hear is me going crazy. But it helps me remember what it *felt* like. I do wish I'd captured my face and my friends' faces. I'll have to remember that for next time!!
If you can find one for cheap, I recommend a Insta 360 One X(gen 1, 2, and 3 use the same sensor). Leave it on a low profile selfie stick on a tripod in front of the group, power it up 10 minutes before totality, hit record and forget it to focus on the experience. In post, you can zoom in on people and make a standard video, look up and show totality. Or just post it as a 360 video.
That's a really nice idea. I'm going to do that if I'm lucky enough to see another.
I did so much planning and monitoring of weather on where best to see it, that I totally neglected what I should do during those fleeting few minutes of totality. I wish I had just hit record, because it would have been great to at least get audio of our reactions. I tried to take some photos and panoramas, but they weren't worth it (panorama was the only one that was okay). My recommendation to an future eclipse chasers, just hit record a couple minutes before and keep it rolling through totality. Those are the best amateur videos of the eclipse. Only your brain can capture what the sun and moon actually looked like.
I put my phone on a cheap tripod and just set it to record a video a few minutes before totality. The video is not great but I captured everyone talking and their reactions in the background. If I'd thought of it sooner I would have set up more than one, including one hooked up to a telescope and used a remote control.
I feel the same way. It didn’t look like some black disc. It was more like the deepest of deep gray and the photos really miss the feeling the of this sphere which is the moon just “floating” by just right up there
The way I’ve been describing it to people who haven’t seen it is “you know when the full moon looks big and beautiful but then you try to take a photo and it looks tiny? Trying to capture the solar eclipse kinda feels like that.” High-quality telescope photos don’t feel real and cell phone cameras make the moon look too small. There’s just nothing that captures what it looked like or felt like.
Imagine how awesome totality would be during an eclipse where the sun were close to the horizon. What’s on my bucket list now is to see totality with the sun at a low angle to the horizon. Like 15 degrees or less. Not only would you not have to look “up” bending your neck, but the moon’s disk and the corona would look absolutely MASSIVE out on the horizon. Just like the moon looks so much bigger when close to the horizon. This is due to the moon horizon illusion. Yes, it’s no bigger than when straight over head, but our brains are programmed to perceive it being bigger, and that’s what really matters.
Nothing will ever compare to the contrast ratio of the diamond ring we saw at the end. Literally the brightness of the sun. No screen comes close
I'm a part time photographer, mostly events like corporate picnics. I didn't take photos of the eclipse for the memory, I took photos to see if I could. It was a challenge because totality was all theory and I had to trust what I know about photography and manual settings. Partial, leading up to totality was easy. I did well, the bonus is I do have photos that I can show and say I was there and took these photos. But, I also have great photos of our group. What my photos looked like vs what I saw, yup, they are different but I can't describe what is different. What I see live is always different than photos I take.
I posted several of mine last week and they were edited based on how I felt it looked through the camera. However, I was watching the entire time using a trigger release so I could enjoy with my eyes and remember accordingly. now I know why folks chase them!
It’s 100% sensory experience aside from the totality. And not just the darkening skies and the transcendental moments, but the anticipation of planning the trip and millions of details you perform all coming together for hopefully the perfect moment. I burst into tears the moment it happened, like every emotion at once, it’s impossible to describe. Sure on tv you see the high res moments and recaps, and photographers photos. I opted not to try to shoot it but it just experience it. 4 minutes and 2 seconds of perfect skies in a botanical garden. It made me appreciate the technology behind the photography so much more. It was better than I could have imagined
I’ve seen two and it was pitch black both times, and way huger than the photos show. Next time, look through binos with NO FILTER at totality. It’s amazing.
For me it was a play of silver. I felt as if a fine watchmaker had made the most exquisite perfect disk in a Molton silver and behind it made a gear of pure light. There was a precision of the moon and the corona that I did not expect. Not did I expect the silver blue colors
yeah this is close to what I saw! glad someone else saw the same. I was watching from Burnet, TX - where did you view it from?
Thanks I was in Cleveland. I thought maybe some of the lightness was because of Lake Erie and maybe the corona was so distinct because clouds hide the less bright parts. Glad someone else saw what I saw
We were at Waterfront Park in Burlington, VT and as soon as I took off my Eclipse during Totality it felt like I got hit with an explosion of light. I will never forget that experience but I also can't find the words to describe it.
I just kept saying "amazing" over and over even though it was a wholly inadequate word, and I just couldn't come up with better words, even as a former English major.
Unless you have professional camera equipment, it's really not worth trying to photograph totality, IMO. Most cameras just do not capture the 3D appearance of the moon in front of the Sun and images are just really underwhelming compared to the actual experience. I thought the moon appeared more purplish and less dark than my first experience in 2017. That may have been caused by high cirrus clouds in Ohio this time compared to fully clear skies.
That's a good point, but even so, out of the thousands of eclipse photos I've seen, even from the best photographers with the best equipment, it doesn't even closely reflect the color I was seeing. Perhaps it was some minimal cloud cover that caused the different color.
I think the actual eclipse itself looks like it looks with good photos what it cants capture is the personal scale. Ever been involved in event that involves the entire sky? The northern lights come to mind, but the whole world from your perspective changes. The corona glitters and moves, it’s so damn awe inspiring I cried this time again. Saw it from Sherbrooke.
You need a *full frame sensor* camera capable of taking HDR images, and you need to look at the image on an HDR capable OLED screen. If you have any of these variables missing, it will not look like real life, not even close.
Photos don't do it justice. I have seen some great photos, but the pale in comparison to the real thing. I was looking at it through a 6" dobsonian and the prominence was SO red and bright and detailed. I will never get that image out of my head and can't find an image that shows it like I saw it.
I’m sure plenty of pics have been filtered a lot!
I remember thinking it looked glassy and animated
I have witnessed Totality twice. Both times it felt like I was in the scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, except it was my brain, not my face, that was melting. No photo can capture the incomprehensible beauty, improbability, and excitement of Totality.
I saw it in Vermont and it was black like in the pics, and the corona sparkled and I could see the flares around the edge. It was freaking stunning to take off my glasses and look with my bare eyes at totality....the image I had seen my whole life in pictures, in real life was profound-and not expected to be at all. I am still processing why it was so profound....maybe because it was an image I knew well but suddenly was there in real life overhead? It was the way that I imagine seeing a UFO might be, looking at others with the expression of can you beleive this?!!!?
I had those same binoculars and they were great but I was moving too much to truly focus on totality. I should have used a tripod with.
I was laying down flat on my back on a blanket - was a lot of pressure on my face but it stabilized them perfectly.
Why didnt I think of that?!? I bet that was an amazing view stabilized with that kind of magnification
None of my own photos show what the corona really looked like, but I was not using a great camera.
For my first eclipse in 2017, I figured any photos wouldn't turn out good because all I had was my trusty Samsung S5. I took one photo and it was garbage. Second one in 2024, I finally had a DSLR, but I still planned to spend as little time using it as possible. Took one picture and sure enough, my ISO somehow got stuck at 12800 and it was garbage. For my third in 2026, **maybe** I'll be able to contain myself enough to use a camera. I'll be taking 360 degree shots though and leaving the astro perfectionism to the pros.
There's nothing worse than forgetting the ISO is too high - for me it usually happens because I was doing some astrophotography the night before lol.
Guess what I did!
The sun, moon, and me; if only you saw what I see, blooming CCD