July 2nd 2019 was my first Total Solar Eclipse. I thought I knew what to expect as I’d seen a couple of Partial Eclipses before and watched videos of Total Eclipses but this experience was far greater than I'd imagined. It’s impossible to capture the full experience through a lens and share it through a two-dimensional medium. The black disc obscuring the sun turns out to be only a part of the whole event.
Would you know what swimming felt like solely through diligent study of strokes and watching people in the water but never jumping in?
Could you really know the feelings of the first kiss with your lover through watching couples kissing and studying the effects of emotionally triggered neurochemicals?
Same with a Total Solar Eclipse...
I've seen stunning sunsets in the past but they are always on the horizon with me on a mountain or beach, like seeing a 'live' theatrical production from an auditorium or the big game from a seat in the stadium. A Total Solar Eclipse is like you're 'in it.' On the stage or on the field and in the game. It's totally immersive.
Creating a Camera Obscura (pinhole lens to project an image) I could watch the Moon begin to move across the face of the Sun. Not much happened for the first three-quarters of an hour as the image of the crescent slowly became thinner on my screen. When the fading of the light around me became noticeable, the colour started turning to a warm yellow, as with a Sunset but with the Sun remaining bright and high in the sky. It was already late afternoon and my long shadow across the grass became blurred on only one side. Already this felt unreal and dreamlike.
From 95% obscurity, the fading of the light began to accelerate but squinting at the Sun was still uncomfortable right up until the disc of the Moon appeared to suddenly mask the whole: it looked like the opening of an eye. The sky darkened all the way from the horizon below the Sun to me and the horizon beyond, but to the right -where the final edge of light was extinguished - sunlit sky was still bright and close but slowly crept away to the distance. It was dark overhead but bright on each horizon either side... like two opposing suns had set, book-ending the 'eye' in the sky.
The totality lasted little more than two minutes but, during those minutes, the ring of light hung in the sky as if it had frozen in time. After a while, the sky from the left brightened and began to encroach into the dark band toward the disc with an intensifying yellow glow until level with the edge of the eclipse before releasing the sunlight to burst over the land.
Generally witnessing the everyday Moon and Sun in the sky appears two dimensional and distant but when they interact like this, it becomes multidimensional and hints at the scale of the Universe.
I found it a very humbling and emotional event which left its mark in my memory and spirit. It's how I would imagine I'd feel setting foot on another planet or meeting 'God.'
Riding from Buenos Aires in drizzle under overcast skies to Villa Cañas to see the eclipse didn't look promising but the clouds blew away leaving clear blue sky.
A major milestone in my South American adventure and the only time constraint. The loss of my camera in Uruguay was a handicap but the Galaxy j4 Core phone was up for a challenge.
In memory of Debbie Bulman 2nd of July 1961 - 21st March 2016
Music: The Album Leaf - Falling from the Sun
Blog: http://lifewithglee.com
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