Eclipse Day

Eclipse Day has come and gone and I have to say, it was a wonderful experience. We did not have to fight crowds or traffic -- we just sat out on the deck of my mother's house and watched the sky. I must say, my pictures are all pretty terrible and I actually didn't take too many, wanting to experience the event with my eyes and not just through a viewfinder.

As the sun got down to a crescent the light got really strange. Almost like a dimmer switch going down -- it felt vaguely like sunset or dawn but instead of being long and rich the light was very "white" and somehow "clear" and "watery." Totality rushed upon us and it was downright dark. The rooster, who has been calling in the hens, fell silent along with all the birds. It has been getting cooler for sometime but was not cold. The eastern and western horizons were bright as they do just before dawn but at the same time. I didn't see Venus but the hill was in the way. The son looked just like it does in all the pictures you've probably seen, but it was strangely exhilarating. My mother and T were cheering and so were the neighbors on the next farm down the valley. Totality lasted only around 100 second.

I wasn't quite ready for the excitement and must have twisted my aperture ring the wrong way as you can see from the EXIF data here.  I din't have a tripod and of course the camera fought me by trying to bring up the light levels. The pictures I took of my family's reactions look underexposed (they weren't -- it was dark!). All in all, not a great blip event but a wonderful personal experience. If you are ever near to the path of a total solar eclipse I recommend it. Put down the camera and just experience the strangeness.