Anyone else viewing total eclipse today? We drove the family 5 hours to the path of totality. Same area had total eclipse in 2017, so they know enough to raise the prices on everything this time unfortunately…but what a rare experience to see two total solar eclipses within a decade.
Eclipse 2024?
- Thread starter Yozh
- Start date
Elckerlyc
"Philosophy will clip an angel's wings."
The next eclipse where I live (The Netherlands) will be on 25 May 2142, when I'll be 188. I will be (hurray!) a total eclipse, but to see it I'll first have to find the Fountain of Youth and make sure my house hasn't collapsed before that time.
I think we've got a few minutes here in Scotland tonight. I witnessed an eclipse a few years ago. It was during the working day and all welding ground to a halt because a few of us stole all the welding goggles to go look at the eclipse. The most shocking thing I remember about it was how quickly the temperature dropped and how cold it became (in the middle of a nice sunny day).
I think we get about five minutes of partial eclipse just before sunset, but the weather here is varying between merely overcast and actively raining, so I'm not sure we will see anything.
Harpo
Getting away with it
I’m in the 5 minute zone
60% at peek here where I live.
Harpo
Getting away with it
And for anybody who wants to see it, here is NASA’s live feed
Laura R Hepworth
Lady of the Rings (chainmaille rings that is)
We watched it for a while at my house. Had about 95% totality here.
Extollager
Well-Known Member
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- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
- 9,241
Under somewhat cloudy skies, the partial eclipse was visible here in North Dakota, with solar filter from my telescope held to my nose.
Couldn't get the guys going here, so went out on the back lawns and watched it reach 99.5% (supposedly). A massive difference from our bright day--colder, much darker, defined shadows, and the ambient light is startlingly different. However, 99.5% is not even close to a 'totality' experience. For me, my sole totality experience in 2017 initially took me to a dark place, reminding me of experiences from my past, but it ended up with a sense of salvation.
I went through and did some significant content editing/cuts (sorry, no grammar or readability) on a post I made elsewhere of my experience. It was so dramatic for me it might encourage some of you to chase eclipses if you get the chance. All the talk about the difference is true.
K2
I went through and did some significant content editing/cuts (sorry, no grammar or readability) on a post I made elsewhere of my experience. It was so dramatic for me it might encourage some of you to chase eclipses if you get the chance. All the talk about the difference is true.
The Eclipse itself was amazing, though I missed much of it...
It still felt cold as it was. What I didn't expect was how much of a sudden temperature drop their would actually be. So for me that was surprising, yet what really got me, even though the eclipse forming looked cool, was the shadow. Now I expected "as told" that it would get slightly darker, so as the eclipse neared I'd look out and at best though there was a hue shift it didn't gradually shift to twilight. Just as the eclipse reached totality perhaps in about 15 seconds began getting much darker, and then in what seemed a couple seconds, it became very dark.
The sudden drop in temperature, the air/breeze seemed to still, and then it went dark--dark so fast took me to a really bad place in an instant … I know I gasped and held my breath and became very rigid, even clenched my fists so hard that my nails cut my palms … In other words, I just seized up.
To me it was absolutely terrifying and very confusing. On the one hand I knew logically what was happening, yet on the other I had all these old feelings and sensations just hit me, so it really made it easy for me to understand just how scary it might have been for more primitive peoples, and can see how they might have felt the world was ending.
Logically, in retrospect, it was amazing. There was the sun's corona just like you see in all the photos, you could see the stars (and planets), all around the horizon looked like a sunset, it was night time dark, cold, blah, blah, blah, all the same stuff you hear everyone say.
To me—from some old stuff—it felt like I was right on the cusp of dying. I had proof from all the memories that came rushing back. I became very cold, all of the light seemed to race away from me as it became dark, and once I could force myself to look at the eclipse and the horizon, it made it even worse. To me, it felt like I was in the middle of oblivion. The sunset all around in the distance, I just knew if you tried to walk to it to escape--though miles/days away--would find the oblivion moving with you never able to reach the edge. Worse still, the moon looked like a black hole as though oblivion stretched on forever upward.
Finally as to that point, a warm rush of air must have swept up the face of the cliff from the valley as warmer air rose. What it seemed like to me was that it was the beginning of some wind that would suck me up into that black moon, and I expected that any second I was about to be.
At first I thought it was Coyotes singing, yet from down in the valley below me and up behind on the ridge I could hear people faintly scream out and cheer. ... Instead it simply reinforced my sensation as I recall muffled sounds and whispers in times past, and those faint cheers far in the distance sounded to me like lamentations of millions far off in Hell. At that moment, I'm glad no one touched me as during such times I just start swinging. It's just reflex, I guess, as a last chance to try and fight your way out of whatever. So for me the eclipse was over two minutes of pure terror.
All of that said, I experienced something I never have. As the eclipse ended (which I missed most of it staring at my feet and down into the valley), within a couple seconds it seemed the darkness quickly vanished, though perhaps imagined I could see the shadow race down the mountain and across the valley "away from me" (big point there), the heat and the wind picked up, and the cheers from far off and even from all the guys in our group snapped me out of it as though signaling that it was all over.
Understand, in my past after such a time, you'd slowly recoup and recover gradually it hitting you that you survived. This moment it felt like instant salvation. The sun felt hot and life giving, it was so bright that it was blinding, and all of the darkness and muffled silence fled, leaving you alive and intact in an instant. "To me," that moment was so relieving that I wanted to break down and sob. I was so close to tears that the two older guys near me looked like they were about to cry (due to me about to), yet so relived you laugh instead.
Unlike most people I suspect, for me it was a VERY primal/primitive experience. Due to my past, it really did seem like it was the end of the world or at least my life, and then there was almost instant redemption and salvation. I missed a lot of it due to that, yet on the other hand, I maybe noticed some things others didn't, and at the very least walked away with a very real sense of the fear and terror less developed peoples might have felt.
It was really amazing beyond description and expectation. I'm glad I experienced it.
It still felt cold as it was. What I didn't expect was how much of a sudden temperature drop their would actually be. So for me that was surprising, yet what really got me, even though the eclipse forming looked cool, was the shadow. Now I expected "as told" that it would get slightly darker, so as the eclipse neared I'd look out and at best though there was a hue shift it didn't gradually shift to twilight. Just as the eclipse reached totality perhaps in about 15 seconds began getting much darker, and then in what seemed a couple seconds, it became very dark.
The sudden drop in temperature, the air/breeze seemed to still, and then it went dark--dark so fast took me to a really bad place in an instant … I know I gasped and held my breath and became very rigid, even clenched my fists so hard that my nails cut my palms … In other words, I just seized up.
To me it was absolutely terrifying and very confusing. On the one hand I knew logically what was happening, yet on the other I had all these old feelings and sensations just hit me, so it really made it easy for me to understand just how scary it might have been for more primitive peoples, and can see how they might have felt the world was ending.
Logically, in retrospect, it was amazing. There was the sun's corona just like you see in all the photos, you could see the stars (and planets), all around the horizon looked like a sunset, it was night time dark, cold, blah, blah, blah, all the same stuff you hear everyone say.
To me—from some old stuff—it felt like I was right on the cusp of dying. I had proof from all the memories that came rushing back. I became very cold, all of the light seemed to race away from me as it became dark, and once I could force myself to look at the eclipse and the horizon, it made it even worse. To me, it felt like I was in the middle of oblivion. The sunset all around in the distance, I just knew if you tried to walk to it to escape--though miles/days away--would find the oblivion moving with you never able to reach the edge. Worse still, the moon looked like a black hole as though oblivion stretched on forever upward.
Finally as to that point, a warm rush of air must have swept up the face of the cliff from the valley as warmer air rose. What it seemed like to me was that it was the beginning of some wind that would suck me up into that black moon, and I expected that any second I was about to be.
At first I thought it was Coyotes singing, yet from down in the valley below me and up behind on the ridge I could hear people faintly scream out and cheer. ... Instead it simply reinforced my sensation as I recall muffled sounds and whispers in times past, and those faint cheers far in the distance sounded to me like lamentations of millions far off in Hell. At that moment, I'm glad no one touched me as during such times I just start swinging. It's just reflex, I guess, as a last chance to try and fight your way out of whatever. So for me the eclipse was over two minutes of pure terror.
All of that said, I experienced something I never have. As the eclipse ended (which I missed most of it staring at my feet and down into the valley), within a couple seconds it seemed the darkness quickly vanished, though perhaps imagined I could see the shadow race down the mountain and across the valley "away from me" (big point there), the heat and the wind picked up, and the cheers from far off and even from all the guys in our group snapped me out of it as though signaling that it was all over.
Understand, in my past after such a time, you'd slowly recoup and recover gradually it hitting you that you survived. This moment it felt like instant salvation. The sun felt hot and life giving, it was so bright that it was blinding, and all of the darkness and muffled silence fled, leaving you alive and intact in an instant. "To me," that moment was so relieving that I wanted to break down and sob. I was so close to tears that the two older guys near me looked like they were about to cry (due to me about to), yet so relived you laugh instead.
Unlike most people I suspect, for me it was a VERY primal/primitive experience. Due to my past, it really did seem like it was the end of the world or at least my life, and then there was almost instant redemption and salvation. I missed a lot of it due to that, yet on the other hand, I maybe noticed some things others didn't, and at the very least walked away with a very real sense of the fear and terror less developed peoples might have felt.
It was really amazing beyond description and expectation. I'm glad I experienced it.
Last edited:
Extollager
Well-Known Member
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- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
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For some reason your 2017 account made me think of the beginning, at least, of an orchestral work I haven't listened through in years, John Tavener's Total Eclipse. His topic for the whole piece is the conversion of St. Paul, but the beginning (PLAY LOUD) is about this terrifying experience and the blindness, I guess, that Saul experienced suddenly. Instruments listed here:
Total Eclipse | John Tavener
Total Eclipse by John Tavener, published by Chester Music Ltd
www.wisemusicclassical.com
It must have been hair-raising to hear it at its premiere.
Danny McG
Lid closed, monkey dead.
Awesome view from here in Whitehaven
Agree and it was strangely 'gloomy' for want of a better word.
Christine Wheelwright
Well-Known Member
I got the full deal here in Ontario. Unfortunately there was dense cloud so it was impossible to see. 60 minutes later the cloud cleared and the rest of the afternoon was sunny....as if to mock us.
Alex The G and T
Thar! That Blows.
I kept my computer "clipboard" loaded up and every crackpot, mystical, religious Eclipse post on facebook got pasted:
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
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