Looking at the sun for the first time: reflections from the eclipse’s path of totality
Photos by Ellen Fred
From staff reports
“I don’t want to fan the flames of the FOMO (fear of missing out) crowd, but I can now say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the seconds of totality were totally worth every hour it took to get there,” wrote Cedar resident Ellen Fred, who traveled five hours with her daughter to Grand Rapids, Ohio, yesterday to view the total eclipse in its path of totality. “Those fleeting but utterly magical moments where the sun is completely obscured are truly transcendent. I actually teared up as I removed my safety glasses and looked directly at the sun, for the first time in my life, safely. The moon holding court, center stage, a protector for those mere minutes.
“The difference in light between 99% and 100% coverage is also so very noteworthy. Even moments before totality, although grey and eerie, there’s still enough light to see, but the second totality begins, the light disappears. Nighttime in the daytime — a truly breathtaking experience. When we ventured to totality in August 2017, crickets started chirping, and today owls hooted in the distance.
“The reason I say ‘for the first time in my life’ despite having traveled to the path of totality in 2017 is that, that time, despite our best-laid plans and a near-perfectly clear day, at the very moment of totality in ’17, a cute little puffy cloud marched directly in front of the sun for the entire minute or so of the full eclipse. I had never heard so many people scream at a cloud before. So although it got dark, we didn’t get to see the corona. But today, it was fully visible in all of its celestial glory, and, I have to say, again, it really felt like a once in a lifetime moment.
“My daughter and I, who have now ventured to the path of totality of two eclipses (and had planned to travel all the way to Chile for the December 2020 eclipse, only to have that trip canceled by Covid), are already looking forward to adventuring together again in 2044 (goddess-willing, I’ll be 73 and she’ll be 36). And if we’re lucky and all the stars align, so to speak, we might get to share that once in a lifetime moment together a second time.”
Norm Wheeler drove with his college friend Eric Witzke to Indianapolis to view yesterday’s total eclipse.
“The total eclipse in Indy was amazing,” he wrote. “The last fingernail of sunlight still bright, (as y’all saw in Leelanau), too bright for the naked eye, but after the diamond ring when it becomes a total eclipse, its like a switch was flicked, its dark, you can see several planets either side of the perfect black circle of the moon, and the sun’s corona is a bright white braided swirl of dancing light that gobsmacks the birds, dogs, and people staring at it repeating ‘Wow!! Amazing!’ It’s a once in a lifetime experience, (thrice if yer real real lucky).”
