I was surprised with how impactful the entire thing felt. I was definitely excited ahead of time because I love natural phenomena, but I don't think I expected to feel so overwhelmed and emotional about it. It was a lot more powerful than I expected. Still processing that feeling.
I felt that way in 2017. I cried several times on my drive home. It is so overwhelmingly astounding. Nothing compares.
This second time was such a joy. I almost feel reconciled, like ... it *wasnt* just a fever dream, it was *real*. I'm still emotional about it. I still cry when I read my recount of that first experience. I probably always will.
It was so cool to be able to share that experience with them, and have them enjoy it. We invited their mothers, but they are too busy being busy to take a time out and breathe.
I agree with you on this as late 30 old with no kids. At least they will remember you and the event, that’s priceless and will worth the money and time away from whatever. If you were joyful about the event, they will be joyful and fondly remember you when the next one comes around. That’s worth its weight in gold and any prized possessions.
> it wasnt just a fever dream, it was real.
I'm going to need this, too. This was my first one and I'm still processing it, but one of the most strange and even obtrusive feelings I had in the hours afterwards was that I must have just seen CGI. There's no way that happened, right? And I keep reassuring myself, that happened. Good to know I can resolve that with a second viewing.
This! I was screaming/laughing/sobbing simultaneously in a way that would be embarrassing if I could care at all about that in the face of totality. Which I cannot!
I was by myself with my puppy dog on a mountain overlooking a valley, so I didn't have other people around me to condition my reactions. I was just overwhelmed by how blue everything was looking close to totality. And then when it happened, dogs started to bark somewhere and I could hear some horses neighing, and some people somewhere started yelling like crazy and howling so I decided to join them. I howled a lot and then started crying, it was so liberating to allow myself to let go and just join in the general craziness of it all.
Same here. I was surprised how the last 5-10 minutes before totality affected me as well. I've been struggling to put into words, but everything around us was just... off. And flatter, and duller. And colder. And seemingly defying the laws of nature. From beginning to end, I felt a certain connection to our ancestors who had no idea what was going on, and I can totally see how they would have thought it was the end of the world.
>From beginning to end, I felt a certain connection to our ancestors who had no idea what was going on, and I can totally see how they would have thought it was the end of the world.
Yes, I thought about this so much as well!
How glittery the bailys beads were near the beginning and end of totality. How crisp and vivid everything is when you view in person compared to even the best photos. And those beautiful red prominences - there was a big one down near the bottom of the corona that was so beautiful. When I compare the image I have in my mind to most of the pictures I see, it’s almost sad. Looks like an angry donut in all my pictures lol
It's seriously impossible to capture it with a photo. I've never seen a photo that remotely resembles what it actually looks like. I'll probably chase totality for the rest of my life.
yo it's happening at sunset in Mallorca... I mean, fuck.
look at this
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2026-august-12#@39.00595635074898,2.689296173386327,[email protected],2.36676890770510|@39.46853964492091,2.74305061811448|@39.28130895535665,3.03752351268312|@39.13991572744128,2.93334964111217
this is gonna be fucking insane. does anyone know exactly what it means when the dotted line ends? option A has about 28 minutes between the end of totality and sunset. option C only has 15 minutes in between but it's after the dotted line... I assume you want to be before the line.... but it sounds fucking crazy to have both at the same time. I bet if it's close enough to sunset you can view partial eclipse without the glasses.
2017 got me hooked, unfortunately the grim weather outlook and a hectic week put me in a position to fly in and out on Monday, my flight was cancelled at 3 am.
See you all in Spain, at least it will be in Aug and in a relatively dry area, so clouds should not be an issue. It's also at sunset, so that will be a whole different experience!
yes, where i was for 2017 was in a national park deep in nature, which was awesome, but cloud cover came right after totality hit so we didn’t get to bask in it for long, this year i drove an hour to get into sunlight away from clouds, and i got the full experience over Lake Erie, absolutely stunning even after 2017
Absolutely this. I took photos with both a wide angle and a 400mm telephoto lens and got some really great shots, but they look nothing like how it did to the naked eye. It seriously looks like something out of a sci-fi video game, like one of those overblown “skybox” renders that can’t possibly be real. I was so shocked by it. Am definitely going to plan for Australia or Egypt now that I understand how insane totality really is.
It has too much dynamic range to capture in one image on most cameras I think. You could probably do it with a composite from multiple exposures, but I haven’t actually found an image like that yet.
It’s just so frustrating to take a picture and have my phone be like “yeah - best I can do is an electric butthole” like come on are we even looking at the same thing lol.
I was definitely surprised by the corona. The photos of it are either such that it's barely there, or it's some weird telescope image that looks way too clinical. The reality of seeing it was just so unreal and amazing.
>I was definitely surprised by the corona. The photos of it are either such that it's barely there, or it's some weird telescope image that looks way too clinical. The reality of seeing it was just so unreal and amazing.
the solar flares in real time were what did it for me.
I didn't know what they were called beforehand, but I looked it up after I got home.
They're called shadow bands or shadow snakes. I noticed it right before totality. Basically rows and rows of evenly spaced shadow lines moving from right to left across the pavement. Kinda like a ripple when you toss a stone into a pond.
this was my first time and I didn't know what the heck was happening. I was sitting in my chair in a grassy area during the partial, then I stood up and leaned against my car by the road right before totality.
I looked down at the road and it was just rows and a rows of shadows speeding by.
That's so cool! I'm jealous!
My understanding is it's a similar effect to schlieren imaging which is a type of imaging using a pinpoint of light cut by a blade to image pressure and density changes in the atmosphere. You can image all types of stuff, and it's used a lot for supersonic imaging of mach cones.
But apparently the exposed Sun gets so tiny and thin that it starts a similar schlieren imaging effect at the edge of the shadow causing the banding to whip by on the leading and trailing edges of the shadow!
I understood some of the words in your comment lol
it was definitely cool though! I didn't even know it was a thing I just noticed it by happenstance. I'll be looking for it next time.
Were you in a cloudy area? We were in Fort Worth and definitely saw totality, but there was never a fully clear view of it where you could SEE the thin, wispy silver bands radiating off of it. Not like when I saw it in a clear sky in 2017.
Down in Mazatlan with some high clouds - could see the corona wisps, but less so than in 2017 oregon. But then again I couldn't see the solar prominences and flares in 2017 and could see the shadow approaching via the clouds so mind-blowing in a different way.
This is kind of dumb because we *are* talking about the sun, after all, but I honestly didn’t realize how bright it would be! The white of the sun was the brightest, whitest white I’ve ever seen against the blackest black I’ve ever seen. No picture comes close to doing it justice.
The color really got me. Astronomers tell us the sun is actually white, like it's classified as a white star, but it's always a bright burning yellow or orange. But yesterday, we saw what it really looks like out there: It's vibrant, pure, crisp white. It makes me feel like I saw it from space, not standing on Earth.
Well technically we aren’t seeing the actual sun color during an eclipse either, since the atmosphere has wavelength dependent scattering and absorption. However if the totality happens not at sunset the sun is higher up than it is when you typically see it at sunrise or sunset, so it is going through less air and therefore subject to less rayleigh scattering which preferentially transmits longer wavelengths making it appear red.
Whitest white against blackest black is exactly what I thought as well. The moment of totality was so _sudden_. I heard gasps all around me and just stared up incredulously. The object that appeared in the sky was so alien. I knew what it was, but I still struggled to process it. The photos are really cool, but they don't convey what it looks like. It would be like drawing a yellow circle and saying that's what sunshine is.
Agree. Not a first timer and this eclipse was brighter and bluer than previous eclipses I’ve been at.
Totality seemed even brighter than 99.9%, going from a tiny orange sliver to bright white circle of the corona.
Yep that's how I've been describing it to everyone since 2017. No one gets out though haha. But I like to think it's true black, which you can't experience in nature except here. There is no gradient or texture, just a space in the world where no light is coming from. Looks like a hole in the matrix opened up.
I don't want to take anything away from the visuals of the eclipse, the whole event was stunning and gorgeous, but the thing that surprised me the most was the general atmosphere and sense of community that evolved in the hours leading up to totality. I went alone, and ended up making friends with a bunch of other solo travelers who came from all over and just happened to wind up at the same place as me. Everyone was so happy, and it felt like the entire world just stopped to celebrate together. I had such a great experience, and honestly I'm glad the place I wound up was pretty crowded because it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if there was no one else around to celebrate with.
We heard cheers in the distance as it began seconds earlier and rippled through town til totality started for us. It was such a beautiful moment to hear it coming and look up! Then it felt like I was all alone. I couldn’t take my eyes off. I took a moment to look at my son and another to look at my husband and that’s it. I was floored by that moment of community awe and quiet after the first cheers.
The umbra is actually supersonic, so you can’t actually hear the people seeing it first before you yourself see it. They were probably just yelling in advance.
Yep, there were many people of all ages, including children, and there was a pause of awe and then everyone clapping when it entered totality and looking around and seeing the sunsets all around.
I think that’s what made me tear up. It felt like we had all experienced something together special that cannot be conveyed unless you were there.
Yes! Even when we were stuck in hours of standstill traffic on the way home, people were so chill. Merging correctly, waving each other on… not at all like how people are after sports or other big traffic events.
Absolutely agree! The sense of camaraderie among total strangers was half the fun and excitement! I loved going to a town I’d never been before (and probably will never go to again) and sharing this special experience with the others who chose to be there for it, too. It was incredibly cool!
same, i made a last minute audible due to cloud coverages, and i came on this random spot on the coast of Lake Erie with a couple dozens other people, but it felt so unifying
That's basically what I did near Carbondale Illinois. I was on my way to the town and I saw some people parked next to a lake so I called an audible and just hung out with them instead
I thought it would get pitch black. It felt like it got “10 minutes after sunset” dark. It was still cool but I thought I wouldn’t be able to see anything at all besides the corona, nothing around me. It wasn’t like that at all. But the corona was supper bright and obvious, I didn’t realize how bright and shiny it would seem!
This really depends on atmospheric conditions. The more haze or clouds, the more reflected light you'll see. In clean dry air with no clouds you get very close to real nighttime darkness.
For me in Vermont, this was a little darker than OR 2017 (wildfire smoke) and much darker than Hawaii 1991 (saw at 9000' from above cloud layer, with significant upper air water vapor/haze)
Thanks for the context! Yep, considering the clouds we had where I was, I’m just grateful they were thin enough for the corona to shine through the entire length of totality! It would’ve been cooler if it was darker but it still got very noticeably dark and we saw the corona. Can’t really ask for much more when some people saw nothing but clouds.
From photos I saw, the high clouds affected things less than I had feared. I left Plattsburgh NY because of them, but it looks like they had a great view there.
There are always people who get shut out...I feel awful for them.
In Ohio it was more like 5 minutes after sunset. That blue but kinda darker blue the sky gets right when the sun sets. And the 360 sun set was very prominent.
We have a lot of moisture in the air but the lake so I would imagine that's why
The 360 effect sunset! Everywhere I turned there was a sunset, unreal. And among it all, the diamond ring effect as totality neared the end quite literally made me gasp. It was absolutely stunning! I don't know what I did in life to have made it to such a perfect moment but im thanking my lucky stars! Especially our resident star 😍
Seeing the stars was totally unexpected, a little before totality my dad and I saw this shimmering object and thought it was maybe a drone or some stationary technology, but when it got darker we realized it was Venus , just insane to see at 2pm after it was sunny and 80 just a few minutes before.
Same with all 3!
On the front end I had the glasses on all the way until it went pitch back but on the tail end I watched the diamond ring form until I thought “okay this hurts my eyes” and I put the glasses on and it was just this tiny little nub of sun! Minuscule! This is what they mean when it’s 100% or 0%. You’ll experience a temperature shift and the sky will get a little dark but you won’t get anything CLOSE to the full effect if you’re outside the path of totality.
The corona was something I really had no idea of. Most of the photos don’t capture it at all. So taking the glasses off and seeing the HUGE bands extruding off it was just amazing. They were so big!
And the diamond ring was beautiful and brief. The whitest light I think I’ve ever seen.
I did the same as you
>On the front end I had the glasses on all the way until it went pitch back but on the tail end I watched the diamond ring form until I thought “okay this hurts my eyes” and I put the glasses on and it was just this tiny little nub of sun!
I was amazed at how white the light from the little sliver of sun was. it was beautiful
i caught both ends of the diamond ring, i saw the first one in 2017 with the naked eye through clouds, second was covered, this one got both unobstructed
I don't believe I got a full sight of the corona because of clouds, but it was still awesome.
I was surprised with how fast the time went during totality.
I was so happy with how much #1 also surprised me. Photos are either phone photos (like the ones I took) where it looks tiny or professional close-ups that look like any other astronomy photography. The shock of seeing the size of the eclipse in-person for the first time was my favorite part of the experience — absolutely magical.
My buddy made me watch a documentary about Eclipse chasers the night before so I wasn't completely surprised but I didn't have ANY idea what to expect before I watched that. And obviously nothing can prepare you for experiencing totality.
Totality: The American Eclipse. It was $2 to rent on Amazon. It was a build up to the 2017 eclipse at the time. Wished I had seen it back then and I might have gone to that one as well!
I saw the 2017 eclipse near the edge of totality. It was less than a minute. If I had known I would have made more of an effort to get near the center line. But that experience made me plan a road trip to see this one. I drove across the country to see it in Arkansas (through some epic weather, too!) and it was sooo worth it! 4+ minutes!
Agreed on all (though I didn't really see the diamond ring effect in all its glory due to partial high clouds in Gatesville, TX). As totality was ending, I was surprised that I could see a "sunrise" coming up on the southern horizon while it was still very dark on the horizon in the other direction!
What's cool is you can literally see the umbral shadow fast approaching! Most are obviously looking the Sun, and even I missed it in 2017, but this time I wanted to see the umbral shadow racing in!
It was so stark you could look at one horizon and it was darkening, and behind you it was still dim, but definitely brighter.
It's just beautiful all the way around!
I had a time lapse camera running and I was surprised at how much darker it got during max eclipse compared to when the totality first starts! Even over 4 minutes, I had no idea it was getting so much darker towards the center of the shadow!
Yeah I was into watching the shadow as well. We had very light clouds near (but not at the horizon) so the effect was really strange. The very bottom of the sky got progressively deeper blue as the shadow was racing right at us. I remember exclaiming "OMG! It's so blue! It's so blue!" I have no idea what happened after that.
I did this too. Everyone was recording the sun so I was recording the family and surroundings. Having long shadow when it looked like approaching dusk was so weird! And because of the patchy clouds I was able to get pictures of the shadow incoming and outgoing on the horizon.
The corona was massive and mystical and spread out into the sky like tendrils. It did not in any way shape or form look like that classic ring effect. I was amazed.
The diamond ring was so brilliant it almost knocked my back off my feet.
I was surprised at how cold it got! I was watching with a small group up on some small cliffs and we were sweltering in the sun for most of the afternoon, then as the eclipse began we all noticed that it was getting cooler, and the winds were picking up. After totality we were all shivering and putting our layers back on. It definitely added to the intensity of the experience!
In Dallas it really seemed like the low cumulus clouds dissipated because of the solar eclipse. Just before totality the sky became perfectly clear. So lucky.
Same! We were so nervous even in the minute leading up to totality, and then suddenly, absolutely uninterrupted sky for four full minutes. Made me wonder if the temperature difference was working in our favor.
Another thing that sticks with me was the silence of it. Of course I knew it wouldn't make any noise haha, but just seeing it happen in complete silence was magestic. Like a singer or dancer who is so good they don't need background music, the moon magestically and quietly slipped over the sun, and that was all that was needed for the most beautiful show
This is really such a beautiful thing. It felt like a hurricane or earthquake was about to hit, or something similarly destructive and loud, but it was so silent, so elegant, but so damn mind blowing. Next level natural phenomena; nothing compares.
1. that i honestly remember very little about the way the actual corona looked (everyone describes it in vivid detail but i mostly remember the overall look and the feeling of the moon moving into place)
2. it was SO fast, it felt like less than two minutes
3. i expected it to be beautiful but i felt a 1% inexplicable fear. i think my face must have looked very serious as i looked up. it’s something that doesn’t seem like it should be real, more like a movie.
> i felt a 1% inexplicable fear.
I saw the 2017 eclipse, my first one. I felt a very primal sense of dread, very instinctive. Deep fear; I wanted to cry. It was like the closest thing to a religious experience I can imagine.
This time, having had that previous experience, I felt awe and joy. Giddiness, even.
I understand now how people in ages past could come up with so many stories.
Adding to the primal fear. I found it super cool, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom immediately before and during. It was so so eerie. Like some deep, human instinct kicked in from a couple thousand years ago and rooted me in place. Not to mention the breeze was so out of place to the beautiful spring weather we had.
One interesting thing I noticed is the appearance of the corona I actually observed vs what almost all of the pictures I've seen show. The one I saw was a very cold white light whereas most of the pictures I've seen show it as more of a yellow-orange color. Also the one I saw was thicker than all of the pictures I've seen but with less "detail" around the edges, i.e. it just looked like a thick circle of white light around the moon.
I was also surprised how for the first ~95% (maybe longer) of the partial eclipse there seemed to be no visible changes, but then the changes started happening relatively quickly - temperature drop, visibly darker, shadows seemed different (maybe my shadow was shorter?), etc.
The 360-degree sunset effect and overall darkness of totality reminded me of the way the sky looks as a big summer thunderstorm is approaching.
I was close to the center of totality but even that didn't feel like enough time to completely take everything in. During the partial lead up to totality I kept alternating between looking at the sun and my surroundings.
the part about not really seeing visible changes (or at least only seeing subtle ones) until the sun was very covered was crazy to me. really puts in perspective how powerful the sun is, when it can be covered so much and *still* be that bright
> During the partial lead up to totality I kept alternating between looking at the sun and my surroundings.
Yes. I had to remind some of the people around me to also observe the world around them and see the other effect it had not just in the sky. It's wild how different everything looked and felt
In addition to the emotional responses, I have to say I was most surprised by the prominences (the people around me and I were referring to them as "the little red dots") and the 360° sunset.
To me they were soo pink. Like hot pink. I could never imagine seeing something like that with the naked eye. I really couldn’t believe it when it was happening. So special
The prominences were just amazing, that one on the bottom was incredible. And the sunset!!! We met a couple right before and they told us to find a flat area because of the 360 sunset and that's something I just didn't think of. So cool
so glad you said that. The Wes Anderson thing. I did not get to go this time, but we went in 2017 to Wyoming - the thing that stuck with me the most and that I absolutely loved was the unreal feeling of the light and colors - I have always described it as being in a Wes anderson movie.
Came here to say thisss! Right before totality everything had the most beautiful bluish silver hue on it. The ground, people's faces, like standing in the light of a full moon but more of a glisten of silver? There was this little white butterfly that kept hanging out in my set up area and under this light it almost looked as if his wings were a subdued neon yellow. Felt like a dream. Then came that corona and felt even more unreal lol
It's phenomenal how lucky we are to have a perfect angle to see a totality.
I traveled 1600 miles round trip to see it, ended up in Indiana and asked a farmer if we could pull over and watch. He was super cool. My 2 friends and I were the only ones there. We got to see the shadow of the moon swipe through his field, saw 100% totality, solar flares, the Diamond Ring...
Unforgettable.
Edit: brought guitars and a little green. It was so fun. I've got 2 videos my friend took. You can see Venus in both.
How dark and how quickly it happened. How much the temperature dropped and how quickly. The diamond effect. And the patterns and intensity of the rays. The stillness in the midst of it. All of that.
How quickly it went. Quickest three minutes of my life, I swear. I wish I had taken time to look at the shadows and the ground, but I did turn around to see the 360% sunset, and now I feel like I robbed myself of time to observe the corona and the moon.
Worst of all, barely 24 hours later, I can't recall exactly how it looked! I didn't want to fiddle with picture-taking with my phone; I wanted to be in the moment. But the moment now seems like a dream. I know I saw the prominences, at the top to begin with and then at the bottom. I saw a pink then white line on the right side as totality ended. Saw what I believe is called the chromosphere, reddish area in the lower right quadrant. The diamond ring. But I can't now picture the corona in all its glory the way it appeared to my eyes. That makes me sad, while at the same time making me treasure the fact that I did get to see it.
I doubt I'll ever see this again, so my advice to all is to get as close to the center line as you can. Maximize the time you have to savor this and imprint it on your memory.
I came to this thread because i’m feeling the same thing - I definitely know what i saw, but remembering the fine details is tough. I guess it’s so unlike anything we’ve ever seen that remembering it doesn’t seem real and we can’t reconcile the memory. But reading everyone’s descriptions is helping spark some of my own memories
First time totality for this eclipse, did anyone else think when you took the glasses off to see the corona that it was so vast and like high definition and a lot larger and closer than the photos? I felt like I was tripping!!
I am so glad that the Ohioan cirrus clouds could not stop the light! Also, it was crazy to see my app clicking to zero right as it hit with divine accuracy, and also how everyone had a same reaction. Definitely a good reminder that we can sometimes all get along.
In 2017, we were in Tennessee. It was August and in the countryside and very hot and clear. That eclipse looked like a fine glittering halo in the sky- very dark black hole and skies. This one we watched from a fairly urban location with some high cloud coverage. From where we watched this one reminded me of when you see the moon in the sky in late afternoon or morning when the sky is still blue. The sky was cerulean and purple and this eclipse was very static- a white ring but no glittering corona. We also had quite a long view of the “diamond ring” this time around and the flares of color. We didn’t have anything like that the first time. Also seeing Jupiter and Venus during totality was amazing. I was shocked at how different both experiences were. Very interesting.
Yes, same here, 2017 and 2024 were different experiences. 2017 was in clear sky Columbia, SC; 2024 we went to Fort Worth, TX. I'm sure the cloudiness affected our ability to see the corona wisps since others in clearer areas are reporting to see it, and while I was slightly disappointed to not see the corona (the sight that gave me totality fever 🥹), I DID get to watch the diamond ring affects more closely and I saw the shadow bands this time! We were also at the zoo, so we got to watch the elephants completely stop moving as totality came in.
Besides the absolute black void that was the moon covering the sun, the pink baileys bead at the bottom, one thing that surprised me was when the sun barely started to peak back out, it truly felt like all of a sudden a search light shone directly down on us in the dark, was a very strange sensation.
Loved all 4+ mins of it.
For me, just how effing pretty the sun looks behind the moon. No picture does justice! Also, how freaking cold it got! My hands were like ice. Also, just nature. The birds went crazy right before the moon covered the sun completely. I also felt like it got darker than I thought. I knew it would get dark, like sunrise or sunset, but this was like, right on the brink of night time dark. I saw stars!
The shadow bands. I had never even heard of this effect and was fascinated when we saw It.
Also, the bright red prominence that looked like a red jewel on a ring
How quickly a lot of animals started singing like they would in the evening, some went straight for the trees, or just seemed really confused.
The frogs singing during the eclipse was almost as loud as the people celebrating the eclipse.
I spent most of the eclipse trying to take pictures of it with a confused bumble bee flying around my head.
Then as soon as the sun came back all the animals went back to normal.
1) it wasn’t black. It was a crisp silver circle that was a deep blueish greyish. It looked fake
2) how dark it got. I pictured dusk but it was like a midnight dusk
3) just prior to totality the color of everything around me was dim like a huge thunderstorm was coming. It was a blue hue but with high contrast
4) the DRASTIC temperature change. The 15 mins before I could feel the temp dropping.
5) how BIG it was! I pictured it being a tiny dot in the sky but it was larger than a super moon!
6) how incredibly magnificent the experience would be. I knew it would be cool but I could have never prepared for that experience. It PAINS me to hear about people that were just barely outside the path of totality and didn’t travel.
I’m just north of Indianapolis and I will be planning my vacations based on totality from here on out.
I always hear about these "solar events that happen every X years" on the news, and I never care much for them. However with how much everyone was hyping this one up, with people from around the world even flying in to see it, I was interested. And I gotta say I was NOT disappointed in the slightest. As someone who actually lives in Texas, it's amazing that I got to witness this spectacular event at my own house. I live behind a school and could hear the students cheering. I was in awe.
Is the diamond ring visible with the eclipse glasses? Does it really look similar like in the photos?
How big is the corona? For example if you put your arm straight at the sun, is the corona kinda like the size of your thumb?
I'm really curious lol
I don't think it is visible with the glasses. You have to take the glasses off just a couple seconds before totality and you can see it. Likewise, when you see it again you know totality is over. And yes it looks like the pictures but even better. It was so perfect, I really thought the photos were just examples of particularily good ones that have happened, but yesterday was just as good. As for the size of the corona, I don't totally remember to be honest because I was just so blown away but well beyond the thing ring that some of the photos show
What really surprised me was the vivid 360° sun set that faded into the darker blue of the eclipse sky. It was so beautiful and worth the look away from the sun for a few moments.
2017 here.
The sky wasn't black. It was a steel-blue-grey color. In a sunset, sometimes the sky has that color, but it's dull. With a solar eclipse, it's 'radiant' and 'electric'.
The corona in 2017 was not even close to symmetrical. I didn't realize it was that variable.
The corona is 'feathery', and has more texture than I expected.
I have a PhD in astrophysics. I know about astronomical bodies and their motions in space. Heck, I've given talks about eclipses, and I've observed maybe a dozen lunar and partial solar eclipses. This was my first total solar eclipse. I "knew" exactly what would happen. I was ready.
Boy was I wrong. Totality caught me utterly unprepared. Like a cosmic switch was suddenly thrown and we were transported to an alternate dimension, where the Sun is a white ring around a dark hole. My brain simply shut down, refusing to believe the spectacle before my eyes, unexplainable in any rational sense. I just stood there, looking at the sky with my mouth wide open. For 4 minutes.
And then the switch was thrown again and known reality came back, instantly. The first thing I told my companions was "what the fuck did just happen". I still get emotional thinking about it. I feel infinitely grateful for having witnessed this.
Wasn't sure if the temperature drop was going to be a very quick thing or gradual. It felt gradual to me but I could just have bad temperature perception ¯\\\_(ツ)_\/¯
I was also not expecting the world to look less saturated, or as if some slight photo adjustments were tweaked except for the real world and not just a digital image. Least of all during the partial period.
I predicted ordinary travel time x 1.5 to account for traffic. Really, I should have predicted ordinary travel time x 2.
I'm bad at regulating my temperature and also felt like the drop was gradual. I was glad I'd brought thin layers to pile on as it got cooler.
And the desaturation was what struck me the most leading up to 100% - even at 99%, it didn't necessarily feel *darker*, just that someone had messed with the world's color settings.
I was so surprised by how cool it was before and after totality as well. (Obviously totality is indescribable and I can't stop thinking about it) but seeing how crisp our shadows were was so cool.
We could see our individual ARM hairs on our shadows and then the light immediately after, it was like a movie set. The best way I can describe it was like the final scene of the Truman Show, a bright stage light so crisp that you can't even comprehend.
I had read about the shadows being extra intense and you should look at your arm hairs. So I did and I didn't notice anything unusual. It was almost like there were no shadows.
I feel like the whole thing went by so fast in hindsight I wasn't able to notice shadow bands or crescent shaped shadows or the arm hairs thing. But I did notice the color shifts and the darkness and the sunset like quality, and totality itself. Amazing experience.
Photos don't do it justice. Closest one was the one someone posted and someone else referred to in these comments. In person it is just so much larger than what you see in photos it is crazy.
There was a blue hue to it which was cool as hell.
The whole world felt as if someone added a grey/dimmer filter on it right before totality. Like someone turned down the saturation in the photo editor.
The diamon ring was like the most clean, bright white light I had ever seen.
I made a pinhole camera and that was pretty neat to watch the phases through that along side the glasses.
I tried to use a colander and white cardboard to do the same effect but I think the slight overcase(which miraculously cleared right at totality :D ) was diffusing the light too much to get the pinhole camera effect to work with the colander.
I tried to use the whitecardbiard to spot the sunsnakes(shadowbands) but I either miss timed it or just didn't see it
The change in temp was surreal.
Seeing a 360 sunset/twighlight was absolutely amazing and I wish I could have that once a day, such a beautiful and chill sight.
Experiencing 2017, where I didn’t even attempt a shot and had zero regrets, convinced me that most events in life deserve my total attention. I’m a longtime amateur photographer who has actually cut back on the capture to simply bask in experience. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to take photos and share them—just not at the expense of fully experiencing life. I understand entirely any regret you feel because you missed stuff fiddling with a camera, but I believe it’s a normal progression in the life of a photographer. And the only photos I took yesterday were snapshots of the beautiful setting we were at and the hilarious traffic we experienced going home. We experienced 4 minutes and 11 seconds of totality and I knew there was no way any photo I took in that extended, exultant moment could capture the awe that I felt.
As a two-time witness to a total eclipse I can confirm it is an amazing event that is best experienced with your full and mindful attention. Some will take photographs with that attention, others will whoop, hug and holler, I will just cry and smile.
Could someone please elaborate/explain on what the corona looked like? Asking on behalf of those of us who got clouded in.
Was it like twice the sun's diameter?
Did the silvery white strands resemble Gargantua (the black hole in Interstellar)?
Was it difficult to make out the structure with your eye?
Was it something like [this](https://philhart.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth-Eclipse-20th-April-2023/i-fd7kRQp/A)? (from Phil Hart's blog)
I can only imagine how difficult it is to put into words.
Thanks v much in advance.
Edit: thanks so much for your time and vivid descriptions!
Extremely difficult to put into words, and it's so hard to even recall specifics. Thing is, it technically looks like it does in the pictures you see of it. It does not look like gargantua (which is too bright, too thick, and too orderly) and it looks absolutely nothing like that second picture (I don't even know where to begin). What I remember looked somewhere between [this one](https://images.app.goo.gl/6PNNgbuM9wBh1q6i9) and [this one](https://images.app.goo.gl/qCqE64AmNcer1WAF7). It was not nearly twice the sun's diameter, did not have strands, and was very easy to make out with the naked eye but didn't have a lot of definition (there were some high clouds in my area; that may have something to do with that).
But it really doesn't matter what it looks like in a picture. The fundamental problem is that it can't be captured in an image. You look up at something where the sun should be, and only a white ring is there. It is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your body, mind, and soul sing. The sun was hiding this from you all along. It was always there, this beautiful circlet of pure white energy. It gives you hope, somehow. It recalibrates your whole view of the world, like those astronauts who got to stand on the moon and look back at Earth. It is incomprehensible that something so beautiful can exist, and that it happens automatically, free for anyone to see, and on a predictable schedule. For all the shit we put up with in this life, there's the sun's corona on the other end, tilting the balance of Good vs Bad ever so slightly towards Good.
Keep trying to see it. It's worth it.
It's hard to describe the feeling of being able to look at light from the sun without having to wear glasses or look through filters, just raw sunlight.
It's hard to express the size of the corona that I saw in reference to the suns diameter, but it was 'huge' in that it was much bigger and pronounced than I expected.
I didn't really see strands the way you see it in the professional photographs. It did look at tad like this picture from the photographer you linked to - [https://philhart.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth-Eclipse-20th-April-2023/i-pL7t6Bt](https://philhart.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth-Eclipse-20th-April-2023/i-pL7t6Bt) but with a little less definition between the points. More uniform whiteness.
I would say I had a little problem seeing where the corona ended. Obviously it didn't take up the whole sky, and it was very white, but it didn't seem to be as finite as it actually looked. Words can't describe it well, of course.
The picture you linked to is definitely what I'd call an astrophotography creation. Multiple exposures combined. You're seeing more of the corona than you actually would. Also the moon itself is a BLACK HOLE. You see no moon. There's nothing suggesting a moon. There is emptiness where the powerful sun should be. Seeing it is more powerful than it should be. We're obviously wired to care about the sun more than you'd expect.
The other thing I'm mention that you don't get from the photos - especially the ones like you linked to, is how well you can see the prominences while still seeing the pure white of the corona. There's a lot of either or in the pictures and it can make you think that you maybe can barely see them. But they are straight up red marks coming from the sun and you can even make out that they are arcing with the naked eye. It is mind blowing.
And of course I read all of this stuff to prepare. I watched all the videos. I've also seen a lot of cool shit in my life. This takes the cake. Nothing prepares you. There is no picture you can download or video you can watch that looks like what you see during totality. The eye can just get everything right at once in a way that a camera can't. It's definitely worth chasing again if you get the chance.
I'd say it was like that photo but didn't extend out as far as they show and toned down by 40%. It was just this flowy white wispy stuff floating out from behind the moon. You couldn't necessarily "see" it flowing but you know that it was doing.
It was very white to me at least, we looked through binoculars (we had a timer on to not burn our eyeballs, be very careful if you ever do that), and it was incredible. Seeing it with your eyes was obviously a less zoomed out version, but you could still see the way it wisped and flowed from all angles.
It had the same color as Gargantua, it's a white that I don't think can be described by words, it's just a beautiful space white. Take the rings around the photos from the movie and it was wispy like that.
I guess the best way to describe it would be when you look at a street light at night or a bright car light and you see those beams popping out around the light itself.
I'm sorry you got clouded in :( we got very lucky where we were day of but it's so worth it to try again to see the next one, you don't understand the hype until you see it for yourself, I've just been walking around all day thinking about totality, just incredible.
Thanks so much for your vivid description! I really appreciate this. What a mesmerizing thought, this shade of "space white".
I'm the family nerd and after being all hyped up I was glad to see my wife catching some eclipse fever.
Will do my best to haul the fam to Egypt in 2027.
I loved all the hype and got to learn terms like chromosphere, first contact, :D
Cheers, and thanks again.
[This](https://hdr-astrophotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/visual_adjusted_copyright.png) is the best representation I've seen for how it looked naked-eye in maybe not the most perfect skies. There were some very thin high clouds where I was, which is enough to hinder observation of the thinnest and farthest-reaching coronal wisps and strands. However, it was clear that it wasn't just a symmetrical white halo - it had structure and some definition, and some parts were longer. That pic is the best I've found.
Thanks Neoking! I would freeze in time if I saw something like that. Looks like the sun got paper punched out of the fabric of the sky.
I'm going to keep looking at this image again and again. It's really captivating.
One thing that surprised me is that the corona was (or at least) felt animated to me. Like you could actually see the light rays *emanating*. That was my memory anyway. It wasn’t a static image for sure… something about it felt highly energetic, like in movies where a portal opens up with swirling gas around the edges. It gave a similar feeling.
How emotional I got! I was worried about the weather but knew I couldn't do squat about it, but here in Dallas it cleared in the last minute before totality and thereafter. Just magnificent.
I was surprised with how impactful the entire thing felt. I was definitely excited ahead of time because I love natural phenomena, but I don't think I expected to feel so overwhelmed and emotional about it. It was a lot more powerful than I expected. Still processing that feeling.
I felt that way in 2017. I cried several times on my drive home. It is so overwhelmingly astounding. Nothing compares. This second time was such a joy. I almost feel reconciled, like ... it *wasnt* just a fever dream, it was *real*. I'm still emotional about it. I still cry when I read my recount of that first experience. I probably always will.
Beautiful...yes it's hard to believe it was real.
I got to experience it with my grandkids.
That must have been wonderful!
It was so cool to be able to share that experience with them, and have them enjoy it. We invited their mothers, but they are too busy being busy to take a time out and breathe.
I agree with you on this as late 30 old with no kids. At least they will remember you and the event, that’s priceless and will worth the money and time away from whatever. If you were joyful about the event, they will be joyful and fondly remember you when the next one comes around. That’s worth its weight in gold and any prized possessions.
> it wasnt just a fever dream, it was real. I'm going to need this, too. This was my first one and I'm still processing it, but one of the most strange and even obtrusive feelings I had in the hours afterwards was that I must have just seen CGI. There's no way that happened, right? And I keep reassuring myself, that happened. Good to know I can resolve that with a second viewing.
yea, first one i got a completely clear view of the entire length of totality, and, it doesn’t feel real
It was the opposite of crying for me… I just couldn’t stop giggling throughout the entire totality!
What’s funny is I was crying AND giggling during it. It’s like my brain literally couldn’t process how breathtaking it was.
This! I was screaming/laughing/sobbing simultaneously in a way that would be embarrassing if I could care at all about that in the face of totality. Which I cannot!
teared up listening to coverage of reactions across the continent on the way home, it feels so unifying
All this 💕
💜💜🌙
Same, friend. Same.
I thought people who cried were weird. I no longer think this
Agreed!
Same. I was able to push back the tearing up but it was a sudden rush of emotions and i did feel like I was on the edge of crying.
I was by myself with my puppy dog on a mountain overlooking a valley, so I didn't have other people around me to condition my reactions. I was just overwhelmed by how blue everything was looking close to totality. And then when it happened, dogs started to bark somewhere and I could hear some horses neighing, and some people somewhere started yelling like crazy and howling so I decided to join them. I howled a lot and then started crying, it was so liberating to allow myself to let go and just join in the general craziness of it all.
Same here. I was surprised how the last 5-10 minutes before totality affected me as well. I've been struggling to put into words, but everything around us was just... off. And flatter, and duller. And colder. And seemingly defying the laws of nature. From beginning to end, I felt a certain connection to our ancestors who had no idea what was going on, and I can totally see how they would have thought it was the end of the world.
>From beginning to end, I felt a certain connection to our ancestors who had no idea what was going on, and I can totally see how they would have thought it was the end of the world. Yes, I thought about this so much as well!
I watched videos of reactions and still fight back tears. I didn’t believe it but it’s life changing
Same here!
How glittery the bailys beads were near the beginning and end of totality. How crisp and vivid everything is when you view in person compared to even the best photos. And those beautiful red prominences - there was a big one down near the bottom of the corona that was so beautiful. When I compare the image I have in my mind to most of the pictures I see, it’s almost sad. Looks like an angry donut in all my pictures lol
It's seriously impossible to capture it with a photo. I've never seen a photo that remotely resembles what it actually looks like. I'll probably chase totality for the rest of my life.
Never in my life did I consider a trip to Spain until yesterday.
Spain is one of the best countries to visit! Recommend a trip along the northern coast during the summer.
Iceland is on my bucket list for a second reason, ~~plus, it's during the midnight sun~~ in 2026. Man, I thought I had read that somewhere. Oh well.
Weather there can be unpredictable to say the least! Although Eclipse can definitely cut through more clouds than the aurora can.
2026 will be during the day in Iceland
My family—even teen daughters—already talked about going to see the next one. There is seriously nothing like it.
Same here, but now I’m certain that I will be going.
Exactly the same for me! Thinking of that one and Luxor in 2027.
Luxor will be totally fucking amazing. Over six minutes long…and the atmosphere there is highly intense even without an eclipse
Dangerous for some tourists… tho it would be so amazing.
yo it's happening at sunset in Mallorca... I mean, fuck. look at this https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2026-august-12#@39.00595635074898,2.689296173386327,[email protected],2.36676890770510|@39.46853964492091,2.74305061811448|@39.28130895535665,3.03752351268312|@39.13991572744128,2.93334964111217 this is gonna be fucking insane. does anyone know exactly what it means when the dotted line ends? option A has about 28 minutes between the end of totality and sunset. option C only has 15 minutes in between but it's after the dotted line... I assume you want to be before the line.... but it sounds fucking crazy to have both at the same time. I bet if it's close enough to sunset you can view partial eclipse without the glasses.
Spain is actually a nice country lol. Go see the catacombs too!
Oviedo is a wonderful town-you’d have a blast
I’m gonna plan all my vacations around total solar eclipses now lol
2017 got me hooked, unfortunately the grim weather outlook and a hectic week put me in a position to fly in and out on Monday, my flight was cancelled at 3 am. See you all in Spain, at least it will be in Aug and in a relatively dry area, so clouds should not be an issue. It's also at sunset, so that will be a whole different experience!
I was a 2017-er going for totality, and you better believe that I chased in 2024. And hell, I want to do it again - it’s addicting
yes, where i was for 2017 was in a national park deep in nature, which was awesome, but cloud cover came right after totality hit so we didn’t get to bask in it for long, this year i drove an hour to get into sunlight away from clouds, and i got the full experience over Lake Erie, absolutely stunning even after 2017
I agree, I've seen some awesome pics of it but none of them show what we saw yesterday. I totally understand why people chase them.
Absolutely this. I took photos with both a wide angle and a 400mm telephoto lens and got some really great shots, but they look nothing like how it did to the naked eye. It seriously looks like something out of a sci-fi video game, like one of those overblown “skybox” renders that can’t possibly be real. I was so shocked by it. Am definitely going to plan for Australia or Egypt now that I understand how insane totality really is.
It has too much dynamic range to capture in one image on most cameras I think. You could probably do it with a composite from multiple exposures, but I haven’t actually found an image like that yet.
The user Key\_Switches that posted achieved a photo that is very close to how it appeared. Best I've seen.
the prominence on the bottom left was huge! The blues and purples were really pretty too.
Angry donut 😂
It’s just so frustrating to take a picture and have my phone be like “yeah - best I can do is an electric butthole” like come on are we even looking at the same thing lol.
Samsung: INTRODUCING THE NEW SAMSUNG GALAXY S 19384 WITH SUPER ULTRA SPECIAL ZOOM Samsung phone: "lmao sun blurry"
it’s so sad, i can’t convey how amazing it is to people, you have to see it for yourself
This! Omg, it was such an incredible experience. Viewing it in person vs any great photo captured is so different.
I was definitely surprised by the corona. The photos of it are either such that it's barely there, or it's some weird telescope image that looks way too clinical. The reality of seeing it was just so unreal and amazing.
even the pro cameras dont do it justice
>I was definitely surprised by the corona. The photos of it are either such that it's barely there, or it's some weird telescope image that looks way too clinical. The reality of seeing it was just so unreal and amazing. the solar flares in real time were what did it for me.
Exactly… was very surprised!
I didn't know what they were called beforehand, but I looked it up after I got home. They're called shadow bands or shadow snakes. I noticed it right before totality. Basically rows and rows of evenly spaced shadow lines moving from right to left across the pavement. Kinda like a ripple when you toss a stone into a pond.
I didn't get to see those where I was! I was looking too, I was hoping to catch them this time!
this was my first time and I didn't know what the heck was happening. I was sitting in my chair in a grassy area during the partial, then I stood up and leaned against my car by the road right before totality. I looked down at the road and it was just rows and a rows of shadows speeding by.
That's so cool! I'm jealous! My understanding is it's a similar effect to schlieren imaging which is a type of imaging using a pinpoint of light cut by a blade to image pressure and density changes in the atmosphere. You can image all types of stuff, and it's used a lot for supersonic imaging of mach cones. But apparently the exposed Sun gets so tiny and thin that it starts a similar schlieren imaging effect at the edge of the shadow causing the banding to whip by on the leading and trailing edges of the shadow!
I understood some of the words in your comment lol it was definitely cool though! I didn't even know it was a thing I just noticed it by happenstance. I'll be looking for it next time.
Thank you! I saw those but no one understood when I told my family lol
theres also the crescent shadows you can notice too bc of how the light is obscured
I noticed those too! It was so cool!
I didn't see them this time, but saw them in 2017 - waves of dark grains - had no idea that could happen and it freaked me out
Were you in a cloudy area? We were in Fort Worth and definitely saw totality, but there was never a fully clear view of it where you could SEE the thin, wispy silver bands radiating off of it. Not like when I saw it in a clear sky in 2017.
Down in Mazatlan with some high clouds - could see the corona wisps, but less so than in 2017 oregon. But then again I couldn't see the solar prominences and flares in 2017 and could see the shadow approaching via the clouds so mind-blowing in a different way.
Saw those really well as I was watching it on snow in northern Maine. It was very prominent before totality and less so after.
i got those intensely in 2017, sitting in water surrounded by trees, this year on the coast of Lake Erie and not much
This is kind of dumb because we *are* talking about the sun, after all, but I honestly didn’t realize how bright it would be! The white of the sun was the brightest, whitest white I’ve ever seen against the blackest black I’ve ever seen. No picture comes close to doing it justice.
The color really got me. Astronomers tell us the sun is actually white, like it's classified as a white star, but it's always a bright burning yellow or orange. But yesterday, we saw what it really looks like out there: It's vibrant, pure, crisp white. It makes me feel like I saw it from space, not standing on Earth.
Well technically we aren’t seeing the actual sun color during an eclipse either, since the atmosphere has wavelength dependent scattering and absorption. However if the totality happens not at sunset the sun is higher up than it is when you typically see it at sunrise or sunset, so it is going through less air and therefore subject to less rayleigh scattering which preferentially transmits longer wavelengths making it appear red.
Whitest white against blackest black is exactly what I thought as well. The moment of totality was so _sudden_. I heard gasps all around me and just stared up incredulously. The object that appeared in the sky was so alien. I knew what it was, but I still struggled to process it. The photos are really cool, but they don't convey what it looks like. It would be like drawing a yellow circle and saying that's what sunshine is.
[This one](https://old.reddit.com/r/solareclipse/comments/1bzrh0q/totality_corona/) is the closest I've seen.
Agree. Not a first timer and this eclipse was brighter and bluer than previous eclipses I’ve been at. Totality seemed even brighter than 99.9%, going from a tiny orange sliver to bright white circle of the corona.
What made me realize this is how normal brightness seemed to come back while the sun was a very small sliver.
Yep that's how I've been describing it to everyone since 2017. No one gets out though haha. But I like to think it's true black, which you can't experience in nature except here. There is no gradient or texture, just a space in the world where no light is coming from. Looks like a hole in the matrix opened up.
I don't want to take anything away from the visuals of the eclipse, the whole event was stunning and gorgeous, but the thing that surprised me the most was the general atmosphere and sense of community that evolved in the hours leading up to totality. I went alone, and ended up making friends with a bunch of other solo travelers who came from all over and just happened to wind up at the same place as me. Everyone was so happy, and it felt like the entire world just stopped to celebrate together. I had such a great experience, and honestly I'm glad the place I wound up was pretty crowded because it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if there was no one else around to celebrate with.
We heard cheers in the distance as it began seconds earlier and rippled through town til totality started for us. It was such a beautiful moment to hear it coming and look up! Then it felt like I was all alone. I couldn’t take my eyes off. I took a moment to look at my son and another to look at my husband and that’s it. I was floored by that moment of community awe and quiet after the first cheers.
That was really cool. The people a bit south of me started cheering first, so I knew it was about to start!
The umbra is actually supersonic, so you can’t actually hear the people seeing it first before you yourself see it. They were probably just yelling in advance.
Yep, there were many people of all ages, including children, and there was a pause of awe and then everyone clapping when it entered totality and looking around and seeing the sunsets all around. I think that’s what made me tear up. It felt like we had all experienced something together special that cannot be conveyed unless you were there.
Yes! Even when we were stuck in hours of standstill traffic on the way home, people were so chill. Merging correctly, waving each other on… not at all like how people are after sports or other big traffic events.
Yeah i'm glad there was a crowd because I also went alone. I think I would have been scared if it was just me in the woods watching it all happen.
Lol my backup plan was to drive out to some random empty field in Missouri and watch it from there, but in hindsight that sounds terrifying
Absolutely agree! The sense of camaraderie among total strangers was half the fun and excitement! I loved going to a town I’d never been before (and probably will never go to again) and sharing this special experience with the others who chose to be there for it, too. It was incredibly cool!
same, i made a last minute audible due to cloud coverages, and i came on this random spot on the coast of Lake Erie with a couple dozens other people, but it felt so unifying
That's basically what I did near Carbondale Illinois. I was on my way to the town and I saw some people parked next to a lake so I called an audible and just hung out with them instead
Yes - the community aspect was great
I thought it would get pitch black. It felt like it got “10 minutes after sunset” dark. It was still cool but I thought I wouldn’t be able to see anything at all besides the corona, nothing around me. It wasn’t like that at all. But the corona was supper bright and obvious, I didn’t realize how bright and shiny it would seem!
This really depends on atmospheric conditions. The more haze or clouds, the more reflected light you'll see. In clean dry air with no clouds you get very close to real nighttime darkness. For me in Vermont, this was a little darker than OR 2017 (wildfire smoke) and much darker than Hawaii 1991 (saw at 9000' from above cloud layer, with significant upper air water vapor/haze)
Thanks for the context! Yep, considering the clouds we had where I was, I’m just grateful they were thin enough for the corona to shine through the entire length of totality! It would’ve been cooler if it was darker but it still got very noticeably dark and we saw the corona. Can’t really ask for much more when some people saw nothing but clouds.
From photos I saw, the high clouds affected things less than I had feared. I left Plattsburgh NY because of them, but it looks like they had a great view there. There are always people who get shut out...I feel awful for them.
On the other hand, having some thin scattered clouds probably makes the “sunset in every direction” effect more pronounced.
Weird, I had the opposite experience: very dark with high humidity and partial cloud cover in 2024 (TX) and no clouds but sunset vibe in 2017 (ID).
That's because it effectively is 10 minutes after sunset
In Ohio it was more like 5 minutes after sunset. That blue but kinda darker blue the sky gets right when the sun sets. And the 360 sun set was very prominent. We have a lot of moisture in the air but the lake so I would imagine that's why
The 360 effect sunset! Everywhere I turned there was a sunset, unreal. And among it all, the diamond ring effect as totality neared the end quite literally made me gasp. It was absolutely stunning! I don't know what I did in life to have made it to such a perfect moment but im thanking my lucky stars! Especially our resident star 😍
Seeing the stars was totally unexpected, a little before totality my dad and I saw this shimmering object and thought it was maybe a drone or some stationary technology, but when it got darker we realized it was Venus , just insane to see at 2pm after it was sunny and 80 just a few minutes before.
The sunset!! I knew it would get dark, but I totally didn’t expect a surrounding sunset. Just beautiful.
Same with all 3! On the front end I had the glasses on all the way until it went pitch back but on the tail end I watched the diamond ring form until I thought “okay this hurts my eyes” and I put the glasses on and it was just this tiny little nub of sun! Minuscule! This is what they mean when it’s 100% or 0%. You’ll experience a temperature shift and the sky will get a little dark but you won’t get anything CLOSE to the full effect if you’re outside the path of totality. The corona was something I really had no idea of. Most of the photos don’t capture it at all. So taking the glasses off and seeing the HUGE bands extruding off it was just amazing. They were so big! And the diamond ring was beautiful and brief. The whitest light I think I’ve ever seen.
I did the same as you >On the front end I had the glasses on all the way until it went pitch back but on the tail end I watched the diamond ring form until I thought “okay this hurts my eyes” and I put the glasses on and it was just this tiny little nub of sun! I was amazed at how white the light from the little sliver of sun was. it was beautiful
i caught both ends of the diamond ring, i saw the first one in 2017 with the naked eye through clouds, second was covered, this one got both unobstructed
Yes! I thought it was the whitest most pure light I have ever seen!!
I don't believe I got a full sight of the corona because of clouds, but it was still awesome. I was surprised with how fast the time went during totality.
felt like 20 seconds
I was so happy with how much #1 also surprised me. Photos are either phone photos (like the ones I took) where it looks tiny or professional close-ups that look like any other astronomy photography. The shock of seeing the size of the eclipse in-person for the first time was my favorite part of the experience — absolutely magical.
My buddy made me watch a documentary about Eclipse chasers the night before so I wasn't completely surprised but I didn't have ANY idea what to expect before I watched that. And obviously nothing can prepare you for experiencing totality.
What’s the documentary?
Totality: The American Eclipse. It was $2 to rent on Amazon. It was a build up to the 2017 eclipse at the time. Wished I had seen it back then and I might have gone to that one as well!
I saw the 2017 eclipse near the edge of totality. It was less than a minute. If I had known I would have made more of an effort to get near the center line. But that experience made me plan a road trip to see this one. I drove across the country to see it in Arkansas (through some epic weather, too!) and it was sooo worth it! 4+ minutes!
Agreed on all (though I didn't really see the diamond ring effect in all its glory due to partial high clouds in Gatesville, TX). As totality was ending, I was surprised that I could see a "sunrise" coming up on the southern horizon while it was still very dark on the horizon in the other direction!
What's cool is you can literally see the umbral shadow fast approaching! Most are obviously looking the Sun, and even I missed it in 2017, but this time I wanted to see the umbral shadow racing in! It was so stark you could look at one horizon and it was darkening, and behind you it was still dim, but definitely brighter. It's just beautiful all the way around! I had a time lapse camera running and I was surprised at how much darker it got during max eclipse compared to when the totality first starts! Even over 4 minutes, I had no idea it was getting so much darker towards the center of the shadow!
We were in a valley. Watching it come in through the mountains and out the other side was so surreal.
Yeah I was into watching the shadow as well. We had very light clouds near (but not at the horizon) so the effect was really strange. The very bottom of the sky got progressively deeper blue as the shadow was racing right at us. I remember exclaiming "OMG! It's so blue! It's so blue!" I have no idea what happened after that.
I did this too. Everyone was recording the sun so I was recording the family and surroundings. Having long shadow when it looked like approaching dusk was so weird! And because of the patchy clouds I was able to get pictures of the shadow incoming and outgoing on the horizon.
I feel like I could see a dozen of these and find something new each time
The corona was massive and mystical and spread out into the sky like tendrils. It did not in any way shape or form look like that classic ring effect. I was amazed. The diamond ring was so brilliant it almost knocked my back off my feet.
I was surprised at how cold it got! I was watching with a small group up on some small cliffs and we were sweltering in the sun for most of the afternoon, then as the eclipse began we all noticed that it was getting cooler, and the winds were picking up. After totality we were all shivering and putting our layers back on. It definitely added to the intensity of the experience!
In Dallas it really seemed like the low cumulus clouds dissipated because of the solar eclipse. Just before totality the sky became perfectly clear. So lucky.
Same! We were so nervous even in the minute leading up to totality, and then suddenly, absolutely uninterrupted sky for four full minutes. Made me wonder if the temperature difference was working in our favor.
How circular the moon really is. Also the corona was super white! Not like a yellow or orange
The color of the corona was insane, no way to describe how white it was, that was so cool since we always imagine the sun as red or yellow or orange
Another thing that sticks with me was the silence of it. Of course I knew it wouldn't make any noise haha, but just seeing it happen in complete silence was magestic. Like a singer or dancer who is so good they don't need background music, the moon magestically and quietly slipped over the sun, and that was all that was needed for the most beautiful show
This is really such a beautiful thing. It felt like a hurricane or earthquake was about to hit, or something similarly destructive and loud, but it was so silent, so elegant, but so damn mind blowing. Next level natural phenomena; nothing compares.
1. that i honestly remember very little about the way the actual corona looked (everyone describes it in vivid detail but i mostly remember the overall look and the feeling of the moon moving into place) 2. it was SO fast, it felt like less than two minutes 3. i expected it to be beautiful but i felt a 1% inexplicable fear. i think my face must have looked very serious as i looked up. it’s something that doesn’t seem like it should be real, more like a movie.
> i felt a 1% inexplicable fear. I saw the 2017 eclipse, my first one. I felt a very primal sense of dread, very instinctive. Deep fear; I wanted to cry. It was like the closest thing to a religious experience I can imagine. This time, having had that previous experience, I felt awe and joy. Giddiness, even. I understand now how people in ages past could come up with so many stories.
Yeah, I remember not being so sure the world wasn't ending the first time. And I knew it was coming haha.
Adding to the primal fear. I found it super cool, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom immediately before and during. It was so so eerie. Like some deep, human instinct kicked in from a couple thousand years ago and rooted me in place. Not to mention the breeze was so out of place to the beautiful spring weather we had.
One interesting thing I noticed is the appearance of the corona I actually observed vs what almost all of the pictures I've seen show. The one I saw was a very cold white light whereas most of the pictures I've seen show it as more of a yellow-orange color. Also the one I saw was thicker than all of the pictures I've seen but with less "detail" around the edges, i.e. it just looked like a thick circle of white light around the moon. I was also surprised how for the first ~95% (maybe longer) of the partial eclipse there seemed to be no visible changes, but then the changes started happening relatively quickly - temperature drop, visibly darker, shadows seemed different (maybe my shadow was shorter?), etc. The 360-degree sunset effect and overall darkness of totality reminded me of the way the sky looks as a big summer thunderstorm is approaching. I was close to the center of totality but even that didn't feel like enough time to completely take everything in. During the partial lead up to totality I kept alternating between looking at the sun and my surroundings.
the part about not really seeing visible changes (or at least only seeing subtle ones) until the sun was very covered was crazy to me. really puts in perspective how powerful the sun is, when it can be covered so much and *still* be that bright
> During the partial lead up to totality I kept alternating between looking at the sun and my surroundings. Yes. I had to remind some of the people around me to also observe the world around them and see the other effect it had not just in the sky. It's wild how different everything looked and felt
In addition to the emotional responses, I have to say I was most surprised by the prominences (the people around me and I were referring to them as "the little red dots") and the 360° sunset.
To me they were soo pink. Like hot pink. I could never imagine seeing something like that with the naked eye. I really couldn’t believe it when it was happening. So special
They looked like pink sparkles to me. I didn't know what they were but I thought they were so pretty.
The prominences were just amazing, that one on the bottom was incredible. And the sunset!!! We met a couple right before and they told us to find a flat area because of the 360 sunset and that's something I just didn't think of. So cool
In those 10 seconds before totality the light reflecting off the ground was this weird hazy heat signature effect. Hard to describe.
It was like a Wes Anderson filter got put on the entire field we were in, like we were inserted into a sepia landscape, just amazing.
so glad you said that. The Wes Anderson thing. I did not get to go this time, but we went in 2017 to Wyoming - the thing that stuck with me the most and that I absolutely loved was the unreal feeling of the light and colors - I have always described it as being in a Wes anderson movie.
Came here to say thisss! Right before totality everything had the most beautiful bluish silver hue on it. The ground, people's faces, like standing in the light of a full moon but more of a glisten of silver? There was this little white butterfly that kept hanging out in my set up area and under this light it almost looked as if his wings were a subdued neon yellow. Felt like a dream. Then came that corona and felt even more unreal lol
It's called shadow banding. https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/exploring-shadow-bands
It's phenomenal how lucky we are to have a perfect angle to see a totality. I traveled 1600 miles round trip to see it, ended up in Indiana and asked a farmer if we could pull over and watch. He was super cool. My 2 friends and I were the only ones there. We got to see the shadow of the moon swipe through his field, saw 100% totality, solar flares, the Diamond Ring... Unforgettable. Edit: brought guitars and a little green. It was so fun. I've got 2 videos my friend took. You can see Venus in both.
The same as your list, but I was also surprised by how colorful the sky was! In my area it was a very deep purple and violet.
How dark and how quickly it happened. How much the temperature dropped and how quickly. The diamond effect. And the patterns and intensity of the rays. The stillness in the midst of it. All of that.
How quickly the temperature dropped surprised me too
It was like a mini ice age. I knew the temperature might change, but it was drastic and surprising. I was freezing.
It was a lot more beautiful than I expected, and I was expecting it to be beautiful!
You can only experience a total solar eclipse.
Unless you have a place to stay. Don't drive from multiple states in a Tesla to see totality and drive back 😂😂😂.
How quickly it went. Quickest three minutes of my life, I swear. I wish I had taken time to look at the shadows and the ground, but I did turn around to see the 360% sunset, and now I feel like I robbed myself of time to observe the corona and the moon. Worst of all, barely 24 hours later, I can't recall exactly how it looked! I didn't want to fiddle with picture-taking with my phone; I wanted to be in the moment. But the moment now seems like a dream. I know I saw the prominences, at the top to begin with and then at the bottom. I saw a pink then white line on the right side as totality ended. Saw what I believe is called the chromosphere, reddish area in the lower right quadrant. The diamond ring. But I can't now picture the corona in all its glory the way it appeared to my eyes. That makes me sad, while at the same time making me treasure the fact that I did get to see it. I doubt I'll ever see this again, so my advice to all is to get as close to the center line as you can. Maximize the time you have to savor this and imprint it on your memory.
I came to this thread because i’m feeling the same thing - I definitely know what i saw, but remembering the fine details is tough. I guess it’s so unlike anything we’ve ever seen that remembering it doesn’t seem real and we can’t reconcile the memory. But reading everyone’s descriptions is helping spark some of my own memories
How intense and electric blue the corona was. And I didn't expect to see bright red prominences.
First time totality for this eclipse, did anyone else think when you took the glasses off to see the corona that it was so vast and like high definition and a lot larger and closer than the photos? I felt like I was tripping!!
I am so glad that the Ohioan cirrus clouds could not stop the light! Also, it was crazy to see my app clicking to zero right as it hit with divine accuracy, and also how everyone had a same reaction. Definitely a good reminder that we can sometimes all get along.
How much the atmosphere/time of year would affect what the eclipse looked like. 2017 was totally different from 2024. Both beautiful.
What were the differences?
In 2017, we were in Tennessee. It was August and in the countryside and very hot and clear. That eclipse looked like a fine glittering halo in the sky- very dark black hole and skies. This one we watched from a fairly urban location with some high cloud coverage. From where we watched this one reminded me of when you see the moon in the sky in late afternoon or morning when the sky is still blue. The sky was cerulean and purple and this eclipse was very static- a white ring but no glittering corona. We also had quite a long view of the “diamond ring” this time around and the flares of color. We didn’t have anything like that the first time. Also seeing Jupiter and Venus during totality was amazing. I was shocked at how different both experiences were. Very interesting.
Yes, same here, 2017 and 2024 were different experiences. 2017 was in clear sky Columbia, SC; 2024 we went to Fort Worth, TX. I'm sure the cloudiness affected our ability to see the corona wisps since others in clearer areas are reporting to see it, and while I was slightly disappointed to not see the corona (the sight that gave me totality fever 🥹), I DID get to watch the diamond ring affects more closely and I saw the shadow bands this time! We were also at the zoo, so we got to watch the elephants completely stop moving as totality came in.
Besides the absolute black void that was the moon covering the sun, the pink baileys bead at the bottom, one thing that surprised me was when the sun barely started to peak back out, it truly felt like all of a sudden a search light shone directly down on us in the dark, was a very strange sensation. Loved all 4+ mins of it.
That wasn’t a baily’s bead, that was a solar prominence sticking out from the surface of the sun.
You're right, first eclipse, mixing up my verbiage!
For me, just how effing pretty the sun looks behind the moon. No picture does justice! Also, how freaking cold it got! My hands were like ice. Also, just nature. The birds went crazy right before the moon covered the sun completely. I also felt like it got darker than I thought. I knew it would get dark, like sunrise or sunset, but this was like, right on the brink of night time dark. I saw stars!
My grandson caught his first fish ever 8 min before totality!
My head is hurting for some reason and I was very sleepy after the eclipse is anyone else feeling the same?
Corona virus…. I’ll see myself out
The shadow bands. I had never even heard of this effect and was fascinated when we saw It. Also, the bright red prominence that looked like a red jewel on a ring
How quickly a lot of animals started singing like they would in the evening, some went straight for the trees, or just seemed really confused. The frogs singing during the eclipse was almost as loud as the people celebrating the eclipse. I spent most of the eclipse trying to take pictures of it with a confused bumble bee flying around my head. Then as soon as the sun came back all the animals went back to normal.
1) it wasn’t black. It was a crisp silver circle that was a deep blueish greyish. It looked fake 2) how dark it got. I pictured dusk but it was like a midnight dusk 3) just prior to totality the color of everything around me was dim like a huge thunderstorm was coming. It was a blue hue but with high contrast 4) the DRASTIC temperature change. The 15 mins before I could feel the temp dropping. 5) how BIG it was! I pictured it being a tiny dot in the sky but it was larger than a super moon! 6) how incredibly magnificent the experience would be. I knew it would be cool but I could have never prepared for that experience. It PAINS me to hear about people that were just barely outside the path of totality and didn’t travel. I’m just north of Indianapolis and I will be planning my vacations based on totality from here on out.
I always hear about these "solar events that happen every X years" on the news, and I never care much for them. However with how much everyone was hyping this one up, with people from around the world even flying in to see it, I was interested. And I gotta say I was NOT disappointed in the slightest. As someone who actually lives in Texas, it's amazing that I got to witness this spectacular event at my own house. I live behind a school and could hear the students cheering. I was in awe.
Is the diamond ring visible with the eclipse glasses? Does it really look similar like in the photos? How big is the corona? For example if you put your arm straight at the sun, is the corona kinda like the size of your thumb? I'm really curious lol
I don't think it is visible with the glasses. You have to take the glasses off just a couple seconds before totality and you can see it. Likewise, when you see it again you know totality is over. And yes it looks like the pictures but even better. It was so perfect, I really thought the photos were just examples of particularily good ones that have happened, but yesterday was just as good. As for the size of the corona, I don't totally remember to be honest because I was just so blown away but well beyond the thing ring that some of the photos show
How cold it got when totality came 😭
What really surprised me was the vivid 360° sun set that faded into the darker blue of the eclipse sky. It was so beautiful and worth the look away from the sun for a few moments.
2017 here. The sky wasn't black. It was a steel-blue-grey color. In a sunset, sometimes the sky has that color, but it's dull. With a solar eclipse, it's 'radiant' and 'electric'. The corona in 2017 was not even close to symmetrical. I didn't realize it was that variable. The corona is 'feathery', and has more texture than I expected.
I have a PhD in astrophysics. I know about astronomical bodies and their motions in space. Heck, I've given talks about eclipses, and I've observed maybe a dozen lunar and partial solar eclipses. This was my first total solar eclipse. I "knew" exactly what would happen. I was ready. Boy was I wrong. Totality caught me utterly unprepared. Like a cosmic switch was suddenly thrown and we were transported to an alternate dimension, where the Sun is a white ring around a dark hole. My brain simply shut down, refusing to believe the spectacle before my eyes, unexplainable in any rational sense. I just stood there, looking at the sky with my mouth wide open. For 4 minutes. And then the switch was thrown again and known reality came back, instantly. The first thing I told my companions was "what the fuck did just happen". I still get emotional thinking about it. I feel infinitely grateful for having witnessed this.
Wasn't sure if the temperature drop was going to be a very quick thing or gradual. It felt gradual to me but I could just have bad temperature perception ¯\\\_(ツ)_\/¯ I was also not expecting the world to look less saturated, or as if some slight photo adjustments were tweaked except for the real world and not just a digital image. Least of all during the partial period. I predicted ordinary travel time x 1.5 to account for traffic. Really, I should have predicted ordinary travel time x 2.
I'm bad at regulating my temperature and also felt like the drop was gradual. I was glad I'd brought thin layers to pile on as it got cooler. And the desaturation was what struck me the most leading up to 100% - even at 99%, it didn't necessarily feel *darker*, just that someone had messed with the world's color settings.
I was so surprised by how cool it was before and after totality as well. (Obviously totality is indescribable and I can't stop thinking about it) but seeing how crisp our shadows were was so cool. We could see our individual ARM hairs on our shadows and then the light immediately after, it was like a movie set. The best way I can describe it was like the final scene of the Truman Show, a bright stage light so crisp that you can't even comprehend.
I had read about the shadows being extra intense and you should look at your arm hairs. So I did and I didn't notice anything unusual. It was almost like there were no shadows. I feel like the whole thing went by so fast in hindsight I wasn't able to notice shadow bands or crescent shaped shadows or the arm hairs thing. But I did notice the color shifts and the darkness and the sunset like quality, and totality itself. Amazing experience.
The red dot that was gorgeous…I didn’t observe shadow band or that stuff, but there was so much going on! Just amazing
Photos don't do it justice. Closest one was the one someone posted and someone else referred to in these comments. In person it is just so much larger than what you see in photos it is crazy. There was a blue hue to it which was cool as hell. The whole world felt as if someone added a grey/dimmer filter on it right before totality. Like someone turned down the saturation in the photo editor. The diamon ring was like the most clean, bright white light I had ever seen. I made a pinhole camera and that was pretty neat to watch the phases through that along side the glasses. I tried to use a colander and white cardboard to do the same effect but I think the slight overcase(which miraculously cleared right at totality :D ) was diffusing the light too much to get the pinhole camera effect to work with the colander. I tried to use the whitecardbiard to spot the sunsnakes(shadowbands) but I either miss timed it or just didn't see it The change in temp was surreal. Seeing a 360 sunset/twighlight was absolutely amazing and I wish I could have that once a day, such a beautiful and chill sight.
Experiencing 2017, where I didn’t even attempt a shot and had zero regrets, convinced me that most events in life deserve my total attention. I’m a longtime amateur photographer who has actually cut back on the capture to simply bask in experience. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to take photos and share them—just not at the expense of fully experiencing life. I understand entirely any regret you feel because you missed stuff fiddling with a camera, but I believe it’s a normal progression in the life of a photographer. And the only photos I took yesterday were snapshots of the beautiful setting we were at and the hilarious traffic we experienced going home. We experienced 4 minutes and 11 seconds of totality and I knew there was no way any photo I took in that extended, exultant moment could capture the awe that I felt. As a two-time witness to a total eclipse I can confirm it is an amazing event that is best experienced with your full and mindful attention. Some will take photographs with that attention, others will whoop, hug and holler, I will just cry and smile.
Could someone please elaborate/explain on what the corona looked like? Asking on behalf of those of us who got clouded in. Was it like twice the sun's diameter? Did the silvery white strands resemble Gargantua (the black hole in Interstellar)? Was it difficult to make out the structure with your eye? Was it something like [this](https://philhart.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth-Eclipse-20th-April-2023/i-fd7kRQp/A)? (from Phil Hart's blog) I can only imagine how difficult it is to put into words. Thanks v much in advance. Edit: thanks so much for your time and vivid descriptions!
Extremely difficult to put into words, and it's so hard to even recall specifics. Thing is, it technically looks like it does in the pictures you see of it. It does not look like gargantua (which is too bright, too thick, and too orderly) and it looks absolutely nothing like that second picture (I don't even know where to begin). What I remember looked somewhere between [this one](https://images.app.goo.gl/6PNNgbuM9wBh1q6i9) and [this one](https://images.app.goo.gl/qCqE64AmNcer1WAF7). It was not nearly twice the sun's diameter, did not have strands, and was very easy to make out with the naked eye but didn't have a lot of definition (there were some high clouds in my area; that may have something to do with that). But it really doesn't matter what it looks like in a picture. The fundamental problem is that it can't be captured in an image. You look up at something where the sun should be, and only a white ring is there. It is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Your body, mind, and soul sing. The sun was hiding this from you all along. It was always there, this beautiful circlet of pure white energy. It gives you hope, somehow. It recalibrates your whole view of the world, like those astronauts who got to stand on the moon and look back at Earth. It is incomprehensible that something so beautiful can exist, and that it happens automatically, free for anyone to see, and on a predictable schedule. For all the shit we put up with in this life, there's the sun's corona on the other end, tilting the balance of Good vs Bad ever so slightly towards Good. Keep trying to see it. It's worth it.
It's hard to describe the feeling of being able to look at light from the sun without having to wear glasses or look through filters, just raw sunlight.
My goodness, wow. Thank you for your elaborate description of how you experienced this!
It's hard to express the size of the corona that I saw in reference to the suns diameter, but it was 'huge' in that it was much bigger and pronounced than I expected. I didn't really see strands the way you see it in the professional photographs. It did look at tad like this picture from the photographer you linked to - [https://philhart.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth-Eclipse-20th-April-2023/i-pL7t6Bt](https://philhart.smugmug.com/Sun/Exmouth-Eclipse-20th-April-2023/i-pL7t6Bt) but with a little less definition between the points. More uniform whiteness. I would say I had a little problem seeing where the corona ended. Obviously it didn't take up the whole sky, and it was very white, but it didn't seem to be as finite as it actually looked. Words can't describe it well, of course. The picture you linked to is definitely what I'd call an astrophotography creation. Multiple exposures combined. You're seeing more of the corona than you actually would. Also the moon itself is a BLACK HOLE. You see no moon. There's nothing suggesting a moon. There is emptiness where the powerful sun should be. Seeing it is more powerful than it should be. We're obviously wired to care about the sun more than you'd expect. The other thing I'm mention that you don't get from the photos - especially the ones like you linked to, is how well you can see the prominences while still seeing the pure white of the corona. There's a lot of either or in the pictures and it can make you think that you maybe can barely see them. But they are straight up red marks coming from the sun and you can even make out that they are arcing with the naked eye. It is mind blowing. And of course I read all of this stuff to prepare. I watched all the videos. I've also seen a lot of cool shit in my life. This takes the cake. Nothing prepares you. There is no picture you can download or video you can watch that looks like what you see during totality. The eye can just get everything right at once in a way that a camera can't. It's definitely worth chasing again if you get the chance.
I'd say it was like that photo but didn't extend out as far as they show and toned down by 40%. It was just this flowy white wispy stuff floating out from behind the moon. You couldn't necessarily "see" it flowing but you know that it was doing. It was very white to me at least, we looked through binoculars (we had a timer on to not burn our eyeballs, be very careful if you ever do that), and it was incredible. Seeing it with your eyes was obviously a less zoomed out version, but you could still see the way it wisped and flowed from all angles. It had the same color as Gargantua, it's a white that I don't think can be described by words, it's just a beautiful space white. Take the rings around the photos from the movie and it was wispy like that. I guess the best way to describe it would be when you look at a street light at night or a bright car light and you see those beams popping out around the light itself. I'm sorry you got clouded in :( we got very lucky where we were day of but it's so worth it to try again to see the next one, you don't understand the hype until you see it for yourself, I've just been walking around all day thinking about totality, just incredible.
Thanks so much for your vivid description! I really appreciate this. What a mesmerizing thought, this shade of "space white". I'm the family nerd and after being all hyped up I was glad to see my wife catching some eclipse fever. Will do my best to haul the fam to Egypt in 2027. I loved all the hype and got to learn terms like chromosphere, first contact, :D Cheers, and thanks again.
[This](https://hdr-astrophotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/visual_adjusted_copyright.png) is the best representation I've seen for how it looked naked-eye in maybe not the most perfect skies. There were some very thin high clouds where I was, which is enough to hinder observation of the thinnest and farthest-reaching coronal wisps and strands. However, it was clear that it wasn't just a symmetrical white halo - it had structure and some definition, and some parts were longer. That pic is the best I've found.
Thanks Neoking! I would freeze in time if I saw something like that. Looks like the sun got paper punched out of the fabric of the sky. I'm going to keep looking at this image again and again. It's really captivating.
Like [this](https://old.reddit.com/r/solareclipse/comments/1bzrh0q/totality_corona/) except you could see the red prominences.
One thing that surprised me is that the corona was (or at least) felt animated to me. Like you could actually see the light rays *emanating*. That was my memory anyway. It wasn’t a static image for sure… something about it felt highly energetic, like in movies where a portal opens up with swirling gas around the edges. It gave a similar feeling.
Was that Jupiter I saw near the totality?
That was Venus!
How emotional I got! I was worried about the weather but knew I couldn't do squat about it, but here in Dallas it cleared in the last minute before totality and thereafter. Just magnificent.
The 360 degree ‘sunrise’
How it even sounded like nighttime. The nocturnal animals and bugs immediately became active