The eclipse starts out so slowly. However, if you are lucky enough (or determined enough) to find yourself lined up with a total eclipse, the progression of smaller and smaller crescents one would expect during an eclipse, are suddenly transformed into a blazing corona. The hair on my arms is standing up as I type this... People, around the lake, were moved to shout and hoot when the corona burst forth. The moon turned magenta. The warm sunny, (albeit smokey) day was transformed to a chilly, mauve-tinted dusk, and you could make out the proverbial man on the moon even as the corona blazed outward.
The air temperature dropped by 23 degrees at Stanley Lake (elevation 5,249) where these pictures were taken. The noisy crickets and birds became silent. We were fortunate to have a horizon to horizon viewing area and witnessed the moon shadow approach us from the west. Moving at the pace of a jetliner's shadow, the lake was only momentarily darkened though the sun remained in hiding for a while longer. Several stars and planets were visible, most notably Jupiter, which can be seen in several of these photographs.
Stanley Lake is in Idaho. Great camp host, great camping, beautiful lake, nice trout. There are Stanley Lake pics here in my portfolio as well.
Enjoy.
The moment totality occurred, the corona, previously obscured by the sun's light, appeared to shoot outward around the moon. That's Jupiter that has come into view.
If you look closely you can see the moon's surface, just as it always looks. Consider how crazy it is to have (1) the moon be exactly the right size to blot out the sun but not the corona, and (2), to rotate on its axis, while circling the earth, so that the man in the moon always faces us, and (3) the moon is moving away from earth very gradually and, at one point, was thought to be only 5,000 miles above the Earth's surface. It is now around 240,000 miles away. Imagine that moon rise!
The classic diamond ring effect when the sun begins to emerge from behind the moon's shadow.
From this point, the light had its way with the camera lens. Strange colors, sunbeams, refraction and reflection were all I could capture.
Einstein proved that light is bent by the gravitational forces generated by sufficiently massive bodies...such as the sun...and perhaps the moon as well.
My wife Sandy, on the other hand, with her Canon SX 280 HD pocket camera, took one amazing photograph after another... The photographs that follow were all hers.
Yes the moon really did turn this color.
Jupiter is peaking out (distorted) on the bottom left.
Interesting that Sandy's camera started reacting to the sun's light, as did mine, with lots of unexpected colors, reflections and sunbeams.
