A beautiful eclipse painting

You may notice that I haven't posted (and likely will not post) many eclipse photos here. That's because- as great as eclipse photos can be- no picture of an eclipse will ever compare to the real experience! But I'm going to post something a little bit different here: a painting. In 1937, the artist D. Owen Stephens joined an expedition to the Andes Mountains in South America to record the total eclipse on June 8. His artistic skill was evident in his painting of the beautiful spectacle:

http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/images/blog/1940backeclipse.jpg

(source: http://palomarskies.blogspot.com/ )

Astronomer George Lovi once commented on the painting:

"I've seen many photographs showing the sky and horizon during totality.  Yet to me not one has captured the true appearance, ambiance, and mood of the event as well as by D. Owen Stephens painting showing the June 8, 1937 total eclipse, for which he traveled to a 14,600-foot mountaintop in the Peruvian Andes.  Stephens portrayed the very delicate corona wonderfully -- the way the eye sees it and a film cannot. The realism of the painting is most evident in the texture of the coronal streamers." 

Even this painting, of course, can't compare to the real thing- but it does show delicate features that no photo could ever show. Do you want to judge for yourself how realistic this painting is? August 21, 2017 is a great opportunity!

 

Thanks for looking! Have a great Sunday!