The Great American Eclipse of 2017
Daddy's been talking about this event for more than a year. And we all started trying to tentatively plan something around this time last year. We didn't finalize plans until shortly before Katherine was born. But we all knew we really wanted to see this, and we didn't want to just see a partial eclipse, but since we were SO close, we knew we wanted to see totality.
Yesterday we all met in Smyrna Tennessee, with plans to drive up to Cedars of Lebannon state park this morning. It worked out marvelous. Britt who is always complaining that we never do nature walks in the woods anymore (kinda hard in S. Florida where there are no woods), got to take a long hour or so meander down several trails with me and Rebecca. The kids played with some velcro balls, like we kids and cousins use to use hanging out all day for the balloon races. We pulled out a frisbee which Ruth lost in the woods and a kickball, that Neela liked playing with as much as the kids. Katherine napped on a blanket much of the time. And ever so often we checked in on the status of the eclipse watching it get closer and closer to complete.
I've read about solar eclipses, watched videos, seen pictures. But it didn't REMOTELY compare to seeing one in person. In the roughly hour leading up to totality. You could gradually feel the temp drop, and tell that the sun wasn't as bright as usual. The shadows began to have a sharper contrast like near sunset, but they don't lengthen any. As more time passed we saw Venus appear high in the sky. In the last minute or so before totality, it goes from daylight to twilight almost immediately. MUCH faster than any of us expected. As you look around at the horizon it is a redish purplish color like at the very end of day, but it's on all sides not only in the west. The crickets came alive, and then we saw Jupiter and Arcturus in the sky. But the most amazing part was seeing the Sun's corona. It wasn't at all as expected. The sky was a deep rich navy, and it was the faintest feathery white. It appeared to move almost like a flare or almost like a white sheer curtain moving in a breeze. It doesn't really move, it's only the way the light passes through the atmosphere, but it was stunning. It was an unbelievable view of a portion of God's handiwork that is impossible to view at any other time.
It was the fastest 2 minutes and 15 seconds of my life. I attempted to snap a couple of pictures, but the quality isn't much. Daddy captured a few pictures with his good camera, and while they look good, they just don't look like the eclipse. In the photo at the top the three spikes along the light, were all we were able to see, much fainter, the rest glowing is a flare on the lenses, and that's after I edited to dim them as much as possible. The bottom picture, He took as the moon was moving back out, and it sorta gives you the idea of the diamond ring phase. Though again, most of what you see is a flare on the lenses.
It was a really moving experience. I just can't explain it. I didn't expect it to be so amazing. As the sun came back into view, it was brilliantly bright almost instantaneously. And we all had to grab the glasses again. The kids thought it was pretty amazing too. Ruth was probably the most interesting to listen too. While they all would look and play and then look again. She did the most, and every time was an excited exclamation. "Look it looks like a cookie someone took a bite out of!" Then, "It's half way gone!" And, "It's just like the Cheshire cat's grin side ways!" Then "It's just the yellow in a rainbow!" And finally there was cheering and giggling, and shouting from the kids and Grumps and everyone in the entire park. It was a sight to behold. After totality, much of the park left, and we went back to the car and sat around having a picnic lunch. Benjamin and Grumps, and I all watched the very end nearly an hour later, as many of the cars finally were gone. I kinda mournfully said, it just looks like a wheel of cheese with a tiny nibble out of it, and then it was perfectly round again, back to normal.
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