Eclipsed

We had some high clouds yesterday but nothing that disturbed our view of the eclipse. I took some photos but they are iphone quality and the iphone doesn’t do pics like that very well. And there are plenty of pictures around.

I can certainly see why being in the path of totality is a big deal and why people would travel to see it. Kind of nice that all we had to do was walk out the front door and look up.

Had the glasses so we could watch as the moon blotted out the sun. For the most part, you couldn’t really tell. The sun gives off a significant amount of light even when half of it is blocked by the moon. As we moved closer to total, the sky did start to dim like nightfall was coming. And then it all went dark. One of the planets popped out of the sky (I know it was already there but it was hidden until the sun went away)

Right before the sun went out, a flock of vultures circled over the house. We have vultures in the area so it isn’t unusal to see them so it might have just been a random thing. Or they could have been fooled into thinking that the sun was setting and it was time to find a place to spend the night.

Some of the birds stopped chirping when it got dark but not right away. Like they weren’t expecting it to be night so soon but it did get noticeably quieter. Except for the people who were watching from some distant location who started making noise when it went dark. Why? I don’t know. Guess eclipse parties were a thing and you’ve probably been there all day waiting for the three minutes of darkness.

It was also weird to be able to take off the glasses and look directly at the sun. Maybe it was because we had clouds, but there was still a ring of light behind the moon but you could look directly at it without any ill effects. It is hard to describe but it was amazing to look at. And then the sun peaked back out and it slowly got lighter and lighter and the big event was done.

A lot of build up for a short event but it was very interesting to watch.