Am I the only one who was thinking this is the opportunity to play Pink Floyd ?*
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*(Dark side of the Moon, obviously)
I already made a You’re So Vain reference months ago.
I had “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden on my internal playlist. I had never thought of that song in terms of an eclipse, but the words fit especially well.
Awesome photo! The bright bursts are what amazed me the most during the eclipse. So glad that you were able to capture it! I had such a lovely time with Bullitt and his family. So glad I came down to Texas for it. The weather was touch and go for us but in the end it (mostly) was decent. We got to see a lot of the first part but it clouded over quite a bit just in time for totality but we still got about 30 seconds of seeing it and it blew my mind. Because of the cloud cover it looked (to me) like a giant ring of fire sitting in front of the clouds like a space ship. Then it went dark as night like someone suddenly turned the lights off. Then the clouds really moved in so the experience was over far too soon.
My itch wasn’t sufficiently scratched.
We need a new thread - Total Eclipse Egypt 2027.
The idea of sitting at my resort on the Nile watching the total eclipse is extremely tempting. Do all the pyramid/sphinx/tourist stuff in Cairo then head down to Luxor for the eclipse.
Just be glad it didn’t look like this:
Someone near us was playing “Eclipse” from DSOTM during totality.
The Bad Astronomer had a column from 11 years ago where a colleague of his managed to snap a pic of a very young moon:
I was thinking about that. I think it’s your brain realizing it’s dim enough to be “twilight”, and we expect the light to be more orange-tinged at that time. But the light we got from the Sun still had the mid-day color balance, it was just the intensity that was decreasing. So your brain thinks it’s twilight because of the intensity, but gets confused because there isn’t the orange tinge that you’d expect.
This article (gift link) has some nice pictures on where to go to see another total eclipse over the next decade. Spain or Iceland, Aug. 12, 2026 anyone? Egypt Aug. 2, 2027? Australia July 22, 2028?
Man, that was great, especially the giant prominence that was viewable to the naked eye! The weather cooperated here in NE Ohio and I was able to experience my 2nd total solar eclipse, this time without having to travel. I did not take photos of the eclipse (did that the first time), but I did send my drone up to get video of the area during totality. You can see the 360 “sunset/sunrise” and get a good feel for how dark it gets. I posted on YT if you want to have a look:
https://youtu.be/-nI1DRFEtzk?si=gteXxYj6pSg8hJdS
Note: Go ahead and mute it, the music I attached is terrible LOL. I was editing on a computer with no speakers and didn’t realize how bad it was, I just grabbed something from YouTube studio that matches the video length and was tagged as “ambient”. 
Interesting, and thanks for posting that link.
It doesn’t quite answer my question, though. How near to the sun is the moon visible with the naked eye? Or to put it another way, in the days before modern astronomy, how difficult was it for clever people to discern that the moon and sun were converging before an solar eclipse?
Yeah, it’s also for me because the twighlight is coming from the wrong direction (I.e. overhead) too.
With vast amounts of clouds in the forecast, we struggled to find an acceptable location in the hill country of Texas - and succeeded in the town of Harper. It was looking grim with low clouds at 10 minutes to totality, but these cleared for amazing views. 10 minutes later would have been a big problem. Four minutes that made a long trip worthwhile.
The back roads of Texas were remarkable: Low traffic, consistently smooth pavement, wide shoulders (would be notably bike-friendly), and wide verges. These were frequently carpeted with an impressive array of wildflowers.
My eclipse song is Whole of the Moon by the Waterboys. It dates from my first eclipse in the Gobi Desert in 2008. On the way to the eclipse site in the morning, I was sitting on the coach listening to some favourites on my phone, thar one came up and I thought, that’s a good omen - and it was. Super eclipse and I was totally hooked. So playing that song on the way to the site in the morning is part of my ritual!
We had an amazing day in northern New Hampshire. It was perfectly clear and we had about 3 minutes of totality. So many things don’t live up to the hype. This far exceeded it.
I had read in passing that the cell networks could get overwhelmed, but didn’t think much of it. Then about 10:15 a.m., my phone’s gps and internet were completely down, which lasted for most of the day. I had a pretty clear sense where I was going, but I missed the assurance of having an estimated arrival time. The trip home took 7 hours, (usually 3 1/2). The limited restaurants and fast food places in the area knew it was going to be busy, but I don’t think they knew the full extent of what to prepare for. A Dunkin we went into was sold out of everything except iced and hot coffee. It was sad to hear from many workers that they weren’t going to be allowed to view the eclipse.
I was very pleasantly surprised by just how nice everyone was. People were sharing their plans for the trip, memories of past eclipses, places that had the shortest lines for the bathrooms, etc.
Overall, a long but amazing day. I can certainly see why people travel from all over the world to see the totality.
I love this song too.
Different reasons. But I applaud your choice.
I had a really fun time! I was on my deck, in my city between Cleveland and Akron. My mom came over and we had moon pies from a local bakery and listened to Dark Side of the Moon. I NEARLY got “…and the sun is eclipsed by the moon” lined up with totality but I had technical difficulties and I boffed it. Close enough tho. But it was still a good album to listen to during the whole thing.
I clapped when the totality happened, which is weird cuz I’m not very emotive. But it was a thing to see! Then some people started blowing off fireworks and my dogs got upset so that kinda ruined the mood but still it was a pretty fantastic event all around.
Really striking video! Absolutely gorgeous!
Just for fun, after watching it at normal speed, I doubled the playback speed in the settings. Wheee!
Just saw this. Probably too late to reply. With notice I would have loved to but lunch is already being prepared. Stop over to meet and greet in the afternoon? I don’t travel easily these days.
I don’t think I’ve seen @EmilyG on the board since she said she was going homeless.
Today in Mazatlán the weather is totally clear and looks to stay that way. Oops.
Ouchety-ouch-ouch on that whole story!
Never let last minute people or people with scheduling conflicts force your hand on anything with a fixed start time.
I’d have been beyond furious although more at myself for foolishly acceding than them for destroying the event.
Semi-related …
Some of my old friends from St. Louis drove down to Cape on Sunday & stayed overnight w other mutual friends who now live there.
They had a great on-centerline viewing from the hosts’ backyard net of a bit of cirrus.
The drive home shortly afterwards however took 6 hours, not 2. Oops.
The Mexicans had a much better approach. The whole day was a Fiesta and 4 hours after the eclipse probably 80% of the crowd was still here enjoying the beach, music, and eating and drinking and partying. Lots of little kids, lots of families and groups, no fireworks, no pets underfoot. I saw drunk; I never saw disorderly.
Americans could learn a lot about how to live from these folks.