This is perhaps the most gripping thing I ever read on this list.
Joel W.
On 2/27/06, Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have seen one total solar eclipse in my life. I believe it was March
> of 1968 but my memory is frail. I journeyed about 700 miles from my
> then home in Endicott, New York to Greenville, North Carolina. I
> remember being amazed by the large numbers of people just outside the
> path of totality just going about their everyday business not realizing
> that the sight of a lifetime was but a short distance away.
>
> I had prepared for the event by taking my Miranda GT with a lens
> consisting of a cobbled together off-axis telescope made from a 2-1/2"
> f/10 mirror. All was on a mounting made of bolts, 2x4's, plaster lath
> and other odds and ends.
>
> If you've ever watched a partial solar eclipse the run-up to the main
> event is rather pedestrian... that is, until you get close to totality
> and the tepmerature starts to drop, birds stop chattering, dogs stop
> barking, shadow bands go skittering over the ground and Bailey's beads
> appear on the periphery of the moon.
>
> Then, BANG!! Suddenly the lights go out, the stars get switched on,
> near the horizon it's sunrise/sunset for 360 degrees around you and the
> sun suddenly is a moon sized black hole surrounded by streaming flares
> of red and blue several times its diameter.
>
> Well, I'll tell you I never got another shot off during all of totality.
> You could have knocked me over with a feather. I stood there with my
> mouth hanging open suddenly understanding the awe with which the
> ancients must have viewed this apparition. If I were to do it again I
> wouldn't even take a camera except maybe to shoot the crowd. The view
> is overwhelming and too much of a spectacle to bother taking photos.
> Buy them from someone else afterwards.
>
> But don't miss it. I think it's the most spectacular thing I've ever
> seen in my entire life. Too bad it was only 3-1/2 minutes.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
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