Got the full show in Easley, SC. Cumulus clsouds did pop up so it was indeed partly cloudy but from our vantage point we have an clear and unobstructed view of totality.
Got a nice view of the diamond effect as the first rays of sun started to poke out after totality. Really spectacular.
Just need to get better eye wear sorted for the 2024 eclipse. I think that goes over my grandmother’s hometown in Texas and only two days before her 98th birthday. Uh, boss, yeah I need these vacations dates. It’s for an important family event. Every birthday could be her last so we feel the whole family really needs to go each year.
Mine turned out to be pretty disappointing. Rain all morning, up to and including totality. I saw the ring just barely through the clouds a couple times and that was it. I have to admit it was pretty cool though when it went completely dark.
And then of course the sun came out on the drive home, about an hour too late.
Near Nashville, with almost 2 minutes of totality from my front porch! So cool, but not quite as dark as I expected. But we did spot Venus and a couple of other stars. the temp got quite a bit cooler for a few minutes and then rebounded quickly.
SE Michigan here. 80-85% coverage, the most I’ve seen in my lifetime. We get 95-98% coverage in 2024, though.
Our pinhole projectors, made out of pizza boxes and tinfoil, worked great.
However, the shadows and little crescent shaped beams of light through the trees was the most interesting. It did dim significantly and we had clear skies. It looked like a storm was brewing even though it was a nice day.
Pretty interesting just outside DC, with 81% totality. It was definitely still quite bright out–it gets a lot darker before your average summer afternoon thunderstorm. But the light had an odd, slightly hazy, dimmed quality that was noticeable. And seeing a big chunk taken out of the sun was cool.
None of my neighbors had the glasses, just the homemade cereal box pinhole thing, so I shared my pair around and the consensus was that the glasses gave a better view.
I went outside around peak coverage and joined the Astronomy class. They had eclipse glasses to share, and a pinhole box viewer, and were using a mirror to reflect sunlight onto a shaded wall of the school–you could see the crescent sun clearly in that projected image. Also looked at the light under the trees to see the pinhole effect there. Very cool. Now I’m really hoping we have clear skies here for the 2024 totality.
Did you not live here in 94 during the annular eclipse? I remember seeing it while in was in middle or high school (not doing the math at this point, they were in the same building). Here’s what it looked like where I live now, which was only a few miles away. I suppose if you were further north at the edge of what might be considered SE MI, it would have been less covered, but then you’d have also seen less of an eclipse this time as well.
Here’s the 94 eclipse from where I live now, only about 10 miles NE of where I went to school then:
Yep. This is my second total; saw it in Clarksville, TN. Weather was perfect. Another simply incredible experience. Freaking surrreal. I’m ready for the next one! I didn’t notice the ripples last time I saw one, but this time it was pointed out as the sun was coming out of totality. So cool.
Absolutely stunning. I saw - and photographed - solar prominences. The corona was huge. Very few clouds in the sky during the eclipse itself, though there were clouds earlier. Traffic back was paralysed - a farm vehicle that did not pull over, I think.
Amusingly, someone left the site in a hurry at the very start of totality.
I’m in Western North Carolina and we got like 2 minutes of totality or some shit. It was so fucking cool. Leading up to it, it was still pretty neat. Everything was slightly darker, but the sky was still blue and the shadows weren’t like evening shadows. It was quiet.
It got real good real quick. The last little bit of sun disappeared and it was so beautiful. It was like a hole in the sky, so bright on the edges and then just blackness.
And I looked around me and there were these shadow bands on everything. It was downright trippy. I didn’t know that would happen. I was like “hey honey, look at the ground. Hey you over there, look around you!” Did anybody see that shit?
Coolest thing I’ve ever seen so far by far. I can’t wait for the next one!
81% in DC. Glasses given out at the Air and Space annex museum, and I got an eerie cellphone photo through one of the lenses. My pinhole camera actually worked, too; people acted like I was some sort of Druid.
So evidently these were a rare phenomenon known as shadow bands and seeing them is like “winning the eclipse lottery.” The leading hypothesis is they are caused by atmospheric turbulence, but the cause is not definitively known.
The video in the linked article is a good example of what we saw. We were lucky to be next to the light-colored wall of a building and only noticed them because we were watching the hills behind to see if we could see the oncoming shadow.