Totality In Lakewood - Eclipse 2024
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2024 11:20 am
Since the last partial eclipse in 2017, the build up to this year's Solar eclipse has been insane. By 2021 the countdown had already started with a warning about protecting our eyes and to be ready. By 2023 the Meteorologists were starting to talk about the eclipse and what the weather might be like. Who was going to be able to view it and what the path of totality was. This continued to build until everyone was whipped into a feverish pitch, and the meteorologists were all having nervous breakdowns. How could anything live up to this hype? I mean it's just the Moon, something we see every day, moving past the Sun, something we also see every day. What’s the big deal?
Well, one fine point to the big deal was this happens ONLY on earth, and rarely over populated areas, let alone the town you live in. The Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, and 400 times closer. So that only in this rare celestial tango, for only a limited time, does this happen. No other planets have the same ratios of their moons. It could be the only place in the galaxy where this extraordinary astronomical event happens. When the Moon's path blocks the Sun and casts a shadow upon the Earth during the day, and it becomes dark as night. This was totality.
Normally, the Sun is too bright to look at without damaging your eyes, so making observations about the sun is very difficult. All we can see is a huge, bright, fuzzy ball, or on cloudy/rainy days the sun itself. The Corona atmosphere around the Sun, that projects out millions of miles with solar flares are not visible to the naked eye. The intense energy created by the Solar winds is usually only witnessed by those with telescopes equipped with special lenses to protect the viewer. One of the real observations everyone made is even with 95% of the sun blocked it was daylight. It was only at totality, did a very strange darkness enveloped everyone. Causing lights to go on, and everyone to stop and think. It was also the only time you could take off your protective lenses and look directly at the sun, and see the corona.
I have to say, it lived up to the hype and more. It was one of the oddest, calmest, most pleasing moments of my life. Friends, family, passerby’s on the street, all stopped and looked up amazed. Even some of the most jaded people I know, were not just taken back, but silenced as they looked in awe. A truly magical moment that stirred emotions and was
awe inspiring. You could imagine our ancestors witnessing an event such as this without any buildup or warning and what they could have possibly thought.
So without further verbiage, here is some highlights.
Follow the link at the end to see the entire eclipse from beginning to end.
The sun a couple days earlier on a clear day. This is with a solar filter, I was testing for the big show. You can see sun spots on the right side.
About ten minutes in to the eclipse.
20 minutes in...
50 mins in.
Totality begins.
About 1 minute into totality.
After 2 minutes and 30 second totality ends, you can see the "Bailey's Beads" a combination of the mountains of the moon and the sun.
The "Diamond Ring" appears.
Back to the solar filter, as the sun instantly burns out the eyes and lens.
The moon continues on.
Two hours and 30 minutes later it is over.
Five minutes later, everything back to normal. You can also see the clouds these photos were shot through.
It was amazing. Next one here in about 400 years!
To see all of my photos CLICK LINK BELOW
https://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs ... lipse-2024
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Peace/Love