Five things I learned from Totality
1. It’s all or nothing. This Totality business? It’s a thing. The partial eclipse is cute. Kinda like Cookie Monster took a bite out of the Sun. But only in that period when the moon completely covers the Sun, when day becomes “the night of doom,” will you feel the eclipse. And to experience the darkest eclipse dark you need to not only be in the path of Totality but dead center. If you are going to do it — go all the way.
2. A little bit of Sol goes a long way. We experience sunset everyday and are acclimated to a very slow dissolve from day to twilight to night. In the eclipse it takes quite awhile for the Moon to nibble away at the Sun’s aura but the transition to dark is unexpected. Even as 90% of the the Sun is covered there still is no dusk, it still feels daylight. You keep wondering why isn’t it getting dark? But in that last 5% things get really interesting.
3. It’s a different kinda dark. As Totality approaches you start seeing and feeling things you have never experienced before. First, the quality of light morphs to very contrasty, highlights get brighter, shadows darker and seemingly with very sharp edges. It’s as if you are seeing the world through an Instagram filter called Eclipsium. But there is still plenty of light, it doesn’t read twighlight at all. Then in an instant it comes, Totality. Glasses off and suddenly a curtain of darkness. Venus emerges shining brightly.
4. It’s not what you see. The Sun is now otherworldly. Something you have seen in pictures but not in the sky, your sky. You see the feathery edges of the corona. Looking at it through binoculars took my breath away. I heard myself scream “oh my God” three times loudly. Something I haven’t done since experiencing the birth of my first child (now a grownup and at my side with his wife seen in the picture above). Cliché as it sounds there is a sense of awe. But there is another thing — a formidable sense of doom. It’s a bit like the darkness produced by in intense squall, but with an eeriness about it that hits you deep inside. I have only felt similar during the middle of an earthquake. Perhaps the eclipse sensation is so unfamiliar it triggers the fight or flight response.
5. Worth it. Do not fool yourself into thinking a partial eclipse is the thing. It’s interesting to look at like a lunar eclipse. But it does not in anyway produce the experience you will feel by witnessing Totality for yourself. Neither will watching it streamed live. It’s like a rocket launch. You’ve seen many videos but you haven’t experienced one until you feel the shockwave. Totality produces a shockwave of its own, it still reverberates inside me.
