Total Eclipse

Yesterday Texas enjoyed quite the show of a Total Eclipse. It started out grey and gloomy so I figured we wouldn’t see anything but the darkness but I was wrong. Firstly the Sun is very bright and was able to shine through the lighter clouds but was forced into obscurity by the thinker cloud cover. We met our neighborhood friends for the eclipse party. It’s nice this neighborhood does these kinds of social events so we can get to know each other. Believe it or not, not everyone came equipped to look at the sun. Some folks didn’t have or didn’t know they needed special glasses to look at the Sun. Luckily there were plenty of shades to go around. I brought standard camping chairs and very quickly realized I should have brought the lounge chairs so we could lay back. Looking up at the 1 o’clock sun was quite difficult for me given my back and neck issues. As the eclipse happened you could begin to see the impact of the Sun being covered. I mean I could feel the temperature changing.

As the eclipse continued the clouds started really rolling in and for portions of the event we couldn’t see anything. Suddenly as quickly as the clouds rolled in, the sky opened up and the full ring of totality was on brilliant display. I think the clouds thinned because the temperature had fallen. It was really pretty cool. Here are some sequence pictures showing the event up to the ring of fire.

There was one curiously bright red spot on the bottom of the ring of fire that I wasn’t able to capture on my photos. I could see it with my eyes. It was a coronal loop where the Sun’s plasma gets caught up in a strong magnetic field and is carried high in the Sun’s atmosphere before crashing down again. It was amazing to see. I found a decent picture on the internet showing the little bright spot.

What an amazing experience!