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Here's excerpts from an ABC news special showing the 1979 eclipse.
At the end, newscaster Frank Reynolds talks about yesterday's eclipse, 38 years from then, and ends with a little wish...maybe we'll be lucky and it will happen by the next one, ayy Frankie?
We travelled to South Carolina, Southbound Santee Rest Area, I-95.
The difference between a partial and total eclipse is like being at the 50 yard line at the Super Bowl, vs. watching PBS British murder mysteries.
A partial is at best "interesting" while a total eclipse is awe inspiring. Do other other planets get a show like this?
Some of the interesting side phenomena are not existent for a partial, and hard to capture on video or pictures during totality
It gets cooler and darker more rapidly than you expect.
Insects and frogs sound off.
Parking lot lights come on.
The shadow of the Moon approaches from the West at nearly 2000 MPH. Afterwards it is still visible in the East.
Wonderful things happen in the clouds around you, especially near the horizon.
Crescents (Light snakes?) appear on the ground under trees just before and after totality.
The moment of totality took my breath away and made my heart pound.
The light changed from sunset red and yellow to a brilliant white when the corona was exposed. It was like a David Copperfield magic trick.
The emergence of the diamond ring made me scream.
As the Sun re-emerges into view there is an amazing sense of relief that, yes, it is returning.
It is a public social event and for a moment we are friends with everybody! "Did you see that?"
"Don't miss the next showing"
Exactly this! There's no comparing a partial eclipse, even 90%, to a total eclipse. The difference between the sun almost being blocked to being totally blocked by the moon is the difference between two completely different worlds. It was certainly magical. To me it was like being on an alien world. But everything you say is true. First it started slowly getting darker, like dusk. The temperature also dropped and it got noticeably much cooler I would say about 15° cooler. And then it was dark like 830 at night. But at the same time all around on the horizon the sky was red and orange like sunset was happening all around yet the sun was right above. Speaking of that the moon was like a hoke punched into the sky with brilliant white light emanating around it. It was absolutely surreal. The cicadas stopped there noise and the cricket started their's. The birds also chirp their evening songs.
My boyfriend and I made a special trip to see the totality. We both agreed it was worth it. Worth the money, worth the traffic, worth the vacation time. Honestly, I'd love to do it again.
He told me in 1 billion years there won't be eclipses like this again because the moon will have moved too far away from the earth. Are moon is a very interesting thing. These eclipses, the tides, there's even talk among scientists that we wouldn't have life on earth as we know it without the moon because it stabilizes are seasons.
But seriously, it's unlikely that they get a show "like this."
Even though moons on other planets most assuredly block their sun, how many are just the right size at just the right distance to exactly cover their sun to display the corona like our moon does with our sun?
I live in partial eclipse area and didn't bother doing anything special (plus I had to work). The sky was cloudy anyway so it was like any other cloudy day yesterday, nothing special.
I have, however, experienced total eclipse when I was a child in Asia long ago. It was definitely an awesome phenomena as described by several posters above. I remember a lot of birds that were flying right before full ecplise sort of 'took a break' as the sun got dimmer and dimmer, as if the birds were settling down for the night. Then when the sun fully reappeared again, they took off on their journey again. Very cool!
Crescents (Light snakes?) appear on the ground under trees just before and after totality.
here in north bama we just got a slight darkening and a minimal cooling effect for about an hour but yes ... the crescents shinning thru the trees fascinated me the whole duration ,, here are thousands of them hitting the ground ....
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