Wednesday, August 23, 2017

It came. I saw. When is the next one?

Well the day that I had been anticipating for over a year and a half has come and gone.




The night before I could barely sleep. I lied awake, checked my phone, and talked online to other people who were, like me, waiting to fall asleep and anticipating what would happen in the morning. And then it was morning. There were several things I knew I wanted to do early to get them out of the way. For instance run to Walmart to get some last minute groceries. I pulled into the Walmart and there weren't a lot of shoppers but it did seem like more than a normal Monday. I wondered how many of these shoppers were here today to chase the eclipse. I saw one young man on line at Self Checkout buying a pop-up tent and smiled. Several of the employees were wearing eclipse tee shirts and when I left the woman at self checkout wished me a happy Eclipse Day.

Next I had to run to the dump to get rid of some trash I had accumulated over the weekend. But the dump was closed: no note at the gate or anything but you know what, it's ok. If they were closed to allow their workers to enjoy the day I'm cool with that. I can go to the dump today anyway. On the small road to the dump were two cars parked facing the sky. It was 8:00 am and I think they were eclipse chasers who had picked an open view and were waiting.

Then there was the post office. I had been blessed with three great opportunities to speak at different events in the area leading up to the eclipse and I wanted to send them thank you notes for allowing me to come. So I had postcards from greatamericaneclipse.com and I put the forever stamp in commemoration of the eclipse on each one and mailed them so they would be postmarked for that day. I don't think I have mentioned the stamp in any post before so I will take a moment here. It is a photo by Fred Espenak who is an eclipse chaser, retired Emeritus Astrophysicist from the Goddard Space Flight center, and expert photographer. The stamp is heat sensitive so when it is cool you see a darkened moon over the sun with the corona around it. However if you place your finger on the moon it will change and reveal the moon with craters covering the sun.



I also mailed a post card to myself and my sister.

Then I went home to finish preparations. In the days before the eclipse I had gone out to my backyard during the time when it would be Totality to try and judge where people would want to be to see the show so I began moving my patio furniture out kind of where I thought it would be best. And then of course people could move them but at least I had them in the area. I also moved my Morning Glory and Moon Vine into the backyard along the fence. Looking around I realized exactly how big my yard was and it was perfect for a party.







A really good friend of mine from NY who now lives in Iowa had made the trip on Sunday. He is more like family and in true family fashion as soon as he showed up I put him to work :-) He helped me put together and move the last of the patio furniture while I finished putting a sun shade on my gazebo.




Gazebo and Table for shade
The morning seemed to fly by... partly because we urged people to get here early because of traffic concerns so while I was out with last minute errands Meg was home making eggs, bacon, and pancakes for the early arrivals.

One of my neighbors brought a pair of binoculars with a board behind them to project the eclipsing sun on it and two pin hole projectors he had built out of cardboard boxes. Other neighbors brought over chips, various sides, and desserts.




As 11:30 approached my kitchen and yard were filling up. At that point I called people together to give a quick presentation on the eclipse and what we could expect to look for as well as an important stress on eye safety. I didn't go into the history of it because I needed to get my video camera set up on the morning glory and moon vine and we had a little less then 30 minutes before the eclipse would begin. Leading up to the party I had worried about keeping people entertained during the partial phase but turned out I didn't have to worry about it as people broke off into groups talking with each other. The kids were playing with bubbles that my Mom had brought. I had built two corn hole boards but never got them into the back yard from where they had been in my drive way (it's ok they will get used at other parties).




I set up our Solar Telescope and Meghan got it lined up so that people could take a look at the eclipsing sun.





We had chips and a veggie platter out for snacking on and told people that we would do the barbecue after Totality this way Meg was free to photograph and observe.  We had a ton of soda which had been donated to the party by our city hall, since this party had been listed on the website as the town party even though only my immediate neighbors took us up on the offer. I had three 5 gallon containers of lemonade, ice tea, and just plain water and kept urging people to stay hydrated.

The weather had been so cool these past few weeks until of course Monday.  And I was worried about people getting too hot... but that concern was quickly removed when the temperatures began dropping. Really! At least 10 degrees and one friend said it was 12 or 13. The wind also stilled.

A video showing the crowd.



As the partial phase was going on I would grab a pair of glasses and glance up at the partial covered sun and check the time to be sure of how far we were from Totality. About ten minutes before Totality my neighbor, Glenn, was doing a live stream from my backyard and I got to go talk on that about what we were expecting, after we argued about whether Yankees or Red Sox are better (the answer is Yankees). But in it you can see the way shadows are changing and looking crisp, lighting and colors are different, and this amazing silence around us. Everything was so still. It made sense to me what Edmund Halley meant when he described a, "chill and damp that came over the crowd causing a sense of horror."

Live Feed

My guests were better than me at checking on the flowers and eventually a call came out from that area of the yard that it was working. Now I have sped the video up as a time lapse but it still is a little over 12 minutes. Unfortunately the Moon Vine didn't open :-( And I don't really see the change in the Morning Glory but I think it is because I was too zoomed out. I was trying to catch too much. I was hoping to get the flowers, I wanted to see if I could catch shadow bands, and I wanted the sky to see the changes in it. So in hindsight I wish I had closed in on the Morning Glories more. But the video is still neat as you watch you see people periodically come over and look at them. I slow down the video when everyone is commenting on it, around minute 3-6, and I slowed down the video for Totality starting at minute 8.  One cool thing and I didn't realize I was going to get this is that I have Jupiter in the sky. There is a vine of the Moon Vine that points into the sky. As Totality comes you will see a small dot appear, that is Jupiter. Also I caught the ambient sound (or lack of it) and the changes in lighting and shadows. But best of all is the reaction of all the people in my yard as the clap, cheer, and exclaim at everything they are seeing and experiencing. At the very end you hear the first chirps of one of the birds doing its morning song. I do apologize because I don't have a real movie editing software so I was able to remove the sped up sound from one clip but the ones I had to slow down I couldn't remove sound from. So it sounds like an army of chipmunks in the video.





A little more then four minutes before Totality I was just taking video of the yard and different people were talking about the changes they were noticing in nature.  My neighbor Glenn noticed the crickets chirping and then Meg and I began discussing the difference in the lighting.





And then we had Totality!!! The moment we had all been waiting for was finally here. Now our eyes are the best cameras we have and video and photos do not do the whole experience justice. So keep that in mind with this video. What I did capture was the people's reactions. I mean cheering, clapping exclaiming... one little boy excitedly covering his eyes with his glasses as the sun disappears. My friend John threatening that if the kids aren't good he won't let the sun come back. And all the cool things to see and feel: Venus, Jupiter, Bailey's Beads, The Diamond Ring, The Corona, the horizon, and the stillness. And to me it felt like so much time, like more than 2 minutes and 25 seconds. At one point my neighbor, Glenn , asked how much time was left and I remember thinking it was almost over but we still had 45 seconds!



Here is a clip that was on the Tullahoma news from my talk at the monthly "Lunch and Learn". In this part of the talk I discuss the Corona in art and then just about what I imagined the experience would be. Watching it I think it was a good description of how special this moment would be. The video should start at around 11:50 and is about three minutes.


During the Partial and Total phase Meg was taking photos of the event. And the photos she took were amazing!

Meghan Keohane

Meghan Keohane























The picture above shows the partial sun with three sun spots. The picture on the right has a fourth dot under the sun spots that we believe may a plane.








Meghan Keohane

Here is the sun doing it's best Cheshire Cat grin.





Meghan Keohane










Meghan's beautiful shot of the Corona (crown of the sun).









Meghan Keohane






This is a wonderful shot of the Diamond Ring with prominences.














I have been trying and trying to think of how to put my feelings and emotions at that moment into words. And I still feel like no words (just like pictures) can do justice in describing my feeling. So far the best thing I can say is that I have heard the phrase awe-inspiring used so many times and I have used it in the past. But I have never truly understood what awe-inspiring meant until August 21st 2017. In the video I say I have chills. And I did. I also, as I knew I would, was crying. I noticed nature like I had never ever done before. And I felt connected to it. That I was allowed  to view a special moment between the sun and moon. And we were all part of something so grand. That at that precise moment in time the celestial bodies had lined up in such a way to allow us to see true splendor. We were privileged to be a part of it. And I will share that moment with the friends, family and neighbors forever. I will hear their cheer and applause in my mind when I think of the beautiful corona for the rest of my life.



I feel like something in me was awakened. This eclipse is just the beginning.

And now it is over and it is time to plan for 2023 Annular and 2024 Total eclipse.

Thank you everyone!

2 comments:

  1. How awesome that you were able to see totality from home, but I imagine that must have added to some of the pre-eclipse stress!

    I also sent out postcards (bought in Carbondale August 20) with the eclipse stamps (and one to myself, of course!) and postmarked in Gallatin, TN, August 21, 2017.

    I had been saying on to 2024, but last week I found out about the annular eclipse, so on to 2023!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Paulie! I think it may have removed some stress and added some so maybe I broke out even :-) I am excited for the annular because it is very different. Though I have been told it does not come close to the beauty of the total eclipse. I have been told now that the best time to see the annular eclipse is when it is combined with sunrise or sunset. So I'll have to do some research into times and sky position of the sun.

      I'm still waiting to hear back form some travel agencies to find out the cost for the 2020 eclipse. Hopefully it's a number I can make.

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