Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Total Eclipse in Leon Valley

  Unfortunately, it was very overcast first thing in the morning, but that's common enough at this time of year in Leon Valley. The clouds and gloom usually burn off by mid-morning. I noticed a vine in bloom out in my back yard, and debated about setting up the telescope for projection of the eclipse. Had it been bright, clear and sunny, I thought maybe I'd take the telescope to the library porch or the park and share the view. But the sun was playing hide-and-seek at best.

Vine flowers at 12:19pm

  Later in the morning it seemed even   
                                     more overcast, so I was resigning myself
to noting the environment and maybe catching views of the sun if possible, but setting up the 'scope was pointless.
Couldn't see the sun at all with the solar eclipse glasses on, even when it did peep out--so many clouds filtering the view.  So I decided to take photos every 10-20 mins. of the pumpkin (or whatever it is) flowers. While the flowers had been wide open at the crack of dawn, they'd wrapped themselves up after dawn so I wondered if light had something to do with that.

 Vine flowers at 12:43pm


Vine flowers at 1:03pm


Vine flowers at 1:23pm

     When totality time approached, my sis and I went outside--still couldn't see a thing with the glasses on, but every now
and then the eclipsed sun would pop out for a second or two (still covered with at least some clouds). I tried to take pictures with my phone since there didn't appear to be any great danger with all the cloud cover. The vine flowers stayed firmly furled, but I took shots to see how the light changed. 

Sky at 1:29pm

Sky at 1:30pm

                                                                                                                 Vine flowers at 1:31pm

      It got darker, like a storm does. A 
mockingbird began singing loudly,
several large raptors flew over, and a
flock of night swifts (which regularly
come out at dusk) danced overhead.
The automatic lights in the area snapped on. I didn't really notice a temperature change since it was pretty humid.

                                            Vine flowers at 1:32pm

Kept trying to look up with the glasses on but finally gave up; could catch quick glimpses of the eclipse without them but not see a thing through them. Then my sis said "Look, look!" and we saw the totality. Just for a microblink of an instant--a bullet-hole through the center of the sun. Just as quickly it vanished beneath the moving clouds and didn't appear again until several minutes had passed. I didn't get to see any of the stages I wanted so much to see, Bailey's beads, the diamond ring, the details of the corona--did see the streams on TV (Channel 12, CNN and National Geographic)...though not quite the same as seeing with one's own eyes. Only the curve of the moon's shadow...then the clouds got thicker and the sun stopped peeping out for a long time, so we finally went back in the house. Automatic lights in the neighborhood went back off, returning to an ordinary overcast day.



Sky at 1:34pm





Automatic lights at 1:34pm 

    
Vine flowers at 1:34pm           

Vine flowers at 1:36pm

But at least I did get to see, no matter for how short a time, the total eclipse. Totally cool!!

Automatic lights at 1:36pm
                                                            
                                                                Vine flowers at 1:39pm

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