Eclipsed!

OK, it's a little late, but I wanted to post about the big eclipse that happened back on April 8.

THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!

I've seen a handful of eclipses in my time, but this was the first 100% total one I've ever experienced. It was amazing! I totally get the hype about them now.

My hometown was lucky enough to be right in the path of 100% totality this time, meaning we'd get about three minutes of darkness. 

I had to work on the day of the eclipse, but took a few minutes off to watch (as did most everyone in the building). It began around 12:50 pm here, as the sun (seen through my protective specs) started looking increasingly Pac Man-like.

Note the crescent-shaped beams of light that filtered through the leaves during the eclipse! They perfectly mimicked how the sun looked at that particular stage. Cool!

As always happens during an eclipse, everything just looked... odd. Like it was evening, but the sun was directly overhead instead of touching the horizon. And as happened during the previous eclipse back in 2017, I was amazed how even a microscopic sliver of the sun was still bright enough to light everything. It's incredible just how bright and powerful our little star is.

Everything got increasingly dim, and then we reached totality at about 2:00. It was actually a bit darker than seen in these photos. The sky didn't get pitch black, but did get pretty dark, as the parking lot lights switched on and we even saw a few stars come out!

As the eclipse reached totality, we we able to take off our protective glasses and gaze at it with our naked eyes. It was an awe inspiring sight, and I can honestly say I've never seen anything remotely like it. You don't often see a black star with a white ring around it! It was the most sci-fi looking thing imaginable, but it was real!

During totality, we all noticed a bright little point of light at the bottom of the sun— almost like a small lens flare. Everyone was wondering what it could be, and I guessed it was likely a solar flare.

Turns out that's exactly what it was! Well, more accurately it was a solar prominence—basically a huge belch of matter ejected from the massive exploding ball of gas that constantly hangs over our heads.

Thing is, you could fit about ten Earths into that seemingly tiny little loop there! We tend to forget just how enormous our sun really is.

I don't think anyone expected that to happen during the eclipse, so it was an extra added little bonus for everyone watching!

I said this during the 2017 eclipse, but it's worth a repeat. All my life I've read that ancient civilizations would freak out during eclipses, as they believed the sun was burning out or being eaten by a giant sky snake or something.

I'm starting to wonder how much of that is actually true, and how much is myth?

Think about it— ancient people generally had a pretty good understanding of the sky. Far better than the average citizen does today! They kind of had to, as they kept track of the planets and stars to determine when to plant their crops, when the rainy season started and so on. So they probably understood that every now and then the moon would cover up the sun for a little bit.

Even if they were ignorant of eclipses, they don't last all that long. Four minutes, tops. That doesn't really seem like enough time for an entire ancient civilization to start panicking. Seems like people would think, "What the...? It's noon and it's getting dark out already? OH MY GOD, THAT CAN ONLY MEAN A GIANT SKY SNAKE IS DEVOURING THE SU... Oh, it's back. Carry on, everyone!"