The Impact of Totality- Some Teasers

So I got challenged to "convince" one of you this week. I'm certainly up for that! Of course, I don't think that one post alone is going to convince any of you to go see this eclipse. The purpose of this blog is to hopefully convince at least some of you over time to at least consider taking a vacation to see it.
 

One of the ways I hope to do that is by sharing some eclipse stories and videos that I feel best express the reactions from eclipse chasers, both first timers and experienced ones, as well as some of the more amazing characteristics of totality.

I'll start with the following video, filmed by Dave Kodama at the March 29, 2006 eclipse in Libya. As you watch the video, note several things:

1. The amazing drop in light level. This is not a time lapse video. THIS IS IN REAL TIME. I can speak from experience- the drop in light level that leads into totality is truly astonishing! Remember, you're watching this video on a computer or phone screen. You have the opportunity to have the entire world around you- the sky and the land- go dark that quickly. I should mention to you that it does not get as dark during a real total eclipse as it does in the video. Dave may have had the camera set to automatic exposure, which must have underexposed the scene. The average darkness of totality is similar to deep twilight.

2. As the eclipse becomes total, notice that a white glow starts to surround the disc of the Moon. That's the Sun's corona- its outer atmosphere. Well, the corona is actually MUCH more detailed than that! Cameras can't capture the range of brightness that the human eye sees. The corona is intricate and delicate.

3. Listen to the reactions! It is an exciting, incredible, and- for some- an overwhelming experience.

Here's the video (note that you don't have to watch the whole thing; it becomes pretty static after the 3:30 point. But a real total eclipse is anything but static!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffBYVQ7j8M

Pretty amazing, wouldn't you say? Since that was in 2006, I had already developed a strong interest to total Solar eclipses. You may wonder- what got ME interested in total eclipses? Of course, the interest grew over time, but one of the first things that really caught my eye appeared in the December 1991 issue of Sky and Telescope Magazine. I had only been into astronomy a few months when I picked up the magazine. There had been a total eclipse over parts of Hawaii, Mexico, Central and South America that past July 11. Sky and Telescope published an article in that issue summarizing eclipse reports from all along the shadow path. This was the introduction to that article, written by Barry Slavin, who had witnessed the eclipse from Baja California: 

"The shadow came down on us over the ridge of mountains to the west enveloping everything in a single in-drawn breath. The diamond ring flashed, followed by unbelievably delicate and gossamer coronal streamers stretching, stretching outward. Now everyone was yelling, hollering, screaming, pointing. "Look at that!" "Look at this!" "Look here!" "Look there!" Just look! Look! Video and audio tape spooled in and out of cassettes. Stopwatches clicked. Film wound in countless cameras gathering images. I hardly know what I did. My so-carefully laid plans were in ruins. I could not take my eyes off that terrible, wonderful thing in the sky over our heads. No grammatical gymnastics of mine can begin to describe what I saw in those precious, fleeting minutes. It was every artist's conception of totality, but more brilliant, delicate, and finely etched than I could have ever imagined. Were the waves still breaking on the shore of the Sea of Cortez? I do not know. I did not hear them.
The diamond ring flashed again, unbelievably more incandescent than the first. The shadow ripped away, out and over the sea, heading toward mainland Mexico and beyond. The light returned. The wind off the sea returned. Insects buzzed again. Everything was as it was before, only everything had changed. Maybe I had changed." 

That gave me goosebumps the first time I read it, and each time since- now that I have experienced a total eclipse.

There was one other thing that got me interested. I was visiting a telescope store in a suburb of Houston, and was chatting with the owner. Somehow the topic of the total eclipse that past July came up. He said that he had led a group to Mexico to go see it. He told me that a couple came up to him after the eclipse, and they told him that it was one of the best experiences of their lives, second only to witnessing the birth of their children. Yes, a total Solar eclipse REALLY. IS. THAT. AWESOME.

I plan to post more stories and videos in future posts. Next time I post (in a week or two): What am I really hoping for and- why so early?? Thanks for reading, and have a great week!