Total Eclipse...

We live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and at 1:40 PM local time (about 30 minutes ago as of this writing) experienced a total eclipse, basically unobstructed for 3-4 minutes. It was really cool watching the shadows on the ground that had filtered through the tree leaves turn into crescents beforehand--something we've seen a few times before with partial eclipses.

What made this really different is that the sun was completely blocked out (making it easy to look directly at the moon/sun without any optical filters at all), to the point that street lights in our residential area turned on--like a very deep twilight. The way that the lights came down, though, was the coolest part. It appeared like someone turned down the lights using a dimmer light switch--twice--but spread over 1-to-2 seconds each time, and both times spread a few seconds apart.

If I hadn't been there, I would have thought that it was hyperbole--but it's not.

So how rare was this event? Well the last time it happened here was apparently 1873...and the next time is said to be 2317.

That's pretty rare.

JMTC.

Chris
 
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I keep going out and checking by snapping a pic with my phone reversed…not supposed to look at it.

Nothing to see so far…it is getting dimmer here in New Hartford, CT

Peaks here at 3:28 I think
 

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If you pay a bit more attention, as the eclipse passes, it's actually the western sky that fills in with light afterwards (i.e., instead of from the east as usual). Very eerie, too. The partial eclipse here lasts until about 3:00 PM local time, so it's a pretty long event compared to the other partial eclipses we've experienced.

The weather gods must have given us a reprieve--since we're due to have clouds move in, big time, before 3:00. They're forecasting 2-3 inches of rain with heavy thunderstorms (and possibly hail--which is typical in this part of the world in early April) tonight. It was too close to call they said, with all the news channels droning on and on about the probabilities of seeing the event.

For once I guess we all won this lottery...in a good way.

Chris
 
We were in the 90% zone and got a sliver much like a bright new moon. It had rained most of the morning and was overcast for most of the afternoon, but we got a few good glimpses near the peak darkness time. None of my cheap cameras would have anything to do with it since their meager little brain just overexposed everything. Sticking the eclipse glasses on the cameras or the phone did not work despite what NASA said. I dug out my "American Eclipse Aug 2017" glasses and used them before I read the "do not use after three years warning." we were in the 90% zone for that one too. Kitty was not amused. She would not leave my lap. The wild birds thought it was feeding time, but there were no worms to be found.
 

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In my neck of the DFW woods it was mostly cloudy. You could sit and watch the crescent and the totality with no filter - just seeing it through cloud cover. Bright enough to see something lit up but not enough UV coming thru to be an issue. It peeked out at full intensity a few times, and I had my welding helmet handy. Most of the time, through the clouds it wouldn’t even auto-darken. During the totality, it stayed 100% overcast - and you could barely see the ring of fire through the clouds. It got pretty dark, though. About half an hour after totality, the clouds completely dissipated.
 
Bummer. It was almost a completely clear line of sight during those 4 minutes in west Arlington (right on the lake about midway down). Luck of the draw.

Friends that spent the day in Glen Rose (about 45 minutes west-southwest of our location--just south of Granbury) said that the forecast cloud cover rolled in within minutes of the event ending, but that they had an unobstructed view during the entirety of the total eclipse.

ab26b6ae-7467-47ec-94cc-a64024e75a6d_1920x1080.jpg


Solar radiance from the online Weather Underground station just down the street--that went to zero watt/m^2 for those few minutes:

Irradiance history Total Solar Eclipse 8 Apr 2024.JPG


Chris
 
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Was supposed to be 91% in our area - North Jersey but didn't really look that way.
It was partly cloudy but we managed to get a few images with our obviously homemade pin-hole viewer and an iPhone.
Three days ago we had a 4.8 earthquake, today this.... what's next?
 

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Hello

For the first time in my life I have seen a total Eclipse of the Sun in Montreal.

At 7 am monday morning, I did goes by bus and train to Montreal, there was thousand of peoples running to the south of Montreal, finally I did succeed to goes take the metro train to go to the far south west of the city.

And finally I seen the total eclipse of the sun, it was incredible...

Bye

Gaetan
 

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I was in the direct path, but it was very cloudy. I managed to get a few shots of the partial whenever there was a break in the clouds. Unfortunately the totality was completely covered. It did get very dark though.
 

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It's by design. Moon is artificial and was brought there right on that spot by aliens to stabilize earth's fast rotations to allow life to develop. Moon is hollow and too big to be natural earth satelite. Not to mention only facing one side to earth. How weird. Google moon project originally showed all the massive structures built on the moon by aliens. Later removed. It's all by design, nothing happens by accident.
 
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