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What it’s like to watch a Total Solar Eclipse


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

It's August 21st, 2017, the day of the total solar eclipse. I'm in Madras, Oregon. The skies are clear. My sky tracker, it's meant to move the camera with the sky, so it compensates for the Earth's rotation. That should help me keep the sun in shot as the eclipse is taking place.

We have first contact; this is C1. You just see the moon entering on the top right side. We are 17 minutes out from totality and I think the light is starting to change. I think it's getting noticeably dimmer. There's a bit of like a cold wind coming in from this side. Can you guys feel it?

It's getting kind of cool, and it's getting darker. I'm really excited now that the sun is about 90 percent covered. I'm seeing much sharper shadows. Normally shadows, they're a little bit fuzzy because the light from the sun is coming from a whole bunch of locations. But now, because it's coming from basically one little sliver of the sun, the shadows are all getting very, very sharp.

Oh my God, oh my God! Ah! Look around the treasure. This is insane right now. Oh! This is just unbelievable. What is happening? This is absolutely insane! Like, it's like the breeze. Oh my God, this is totally creepy. Oh! My goodness, this is weird.

Oh my goodness! There's like sunset-sunrise in every direction. People are going nuts! This I did not expect. I don't know what I expected, but... Oh my God! This just looks so wrong. You can see these prominences, the solar corona coming out at the top left and right at the bottom. I can see Venus directly above me.

Oh... what! What is this? What? I just don't even know?! We are inside totality. I just, I am kinda speechless. Hey, it is just unreal right now. It's totally nuts! Background It's like a hole in the sky! Loud cheering (as diamond ring effect appears)

Our excitement is that the sun is back. Gonna pop the solar filter back on. Just want to say a huge thank you to my Patreon supporters. You made it possible for me to buy a flight here and for the equipment that kept my camera tracking with the sun, and the solar filters on the front, and yeah, basically everything I needed to get here and see this total solar eclipse. So thank you so much for supporting me! You make it possible to keep doing the things I love doing and making these videos.

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