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We had scattered clouds throughout and complete cloud cover at what we had for totality NOW it's sunny out

But we still did out best to view the eclipse -- we used the binocular reflection? method. Unfortunately as my DD declared at one point, NONE of us are suited to becoming a surgeon. Our hands holding the binoculars shook and it was difficult to steady since there was no point when the cloud hid the sun and then the sun would have moved. So the photos are not much more than remembrance -- ah well there will be plenty of pro-grade photos to see on line, etc. anyway.

We were intrigued that we could see the clouds in the reflected image, not just the shape of the sun as you can sort of see in the bottom right photo -- unfortunately that one was blurry.



...this is probably the best one I took

My partner went to visit her sister just north of Nashville TN, in the absolute center of the path, to watch it. I was planning to go too, but just when we were getting ready to leave, we had a plumbing emergency with water pouring out. Couldn't go away and leave that for two days. So I stayed home to deal with plumbing.

I watched the eclipse from our backyard. We got 99% totality, meaning at peak there was a thin glowing line (like a pencil line) around one side of the moon shadow. That glowing arc gradually moved from one side to the other. So it was never really dark, but the light level was definitely reduced and yellower. A lot like that eerie look associated with tornadoes. The most dramatic part was very rapid temperature drop. When I started watching our bright, sunny day was very hot. I couldn't stay out in the sun very long. I had to keep taking breaks to go into the shade. By the time it was max, it was cool and pleasant, I'm thinking 15 degrees cooler or so. The chickens didn't go to bed (their area is in the shade so the effect wasn't as dramatic anyway), but they did quiet down. Lots of things both human and animal seemed to -- one of the things I noticed during the main part of the eclipse was how quiet it was. Very amazing!

I was thinking that, too, even here with 75%. No birds making noise, just crickets. But there was a turkey vulture circling overhead -- weird.

Overcast here, brightness dimmed of course, but rather disappointing. I'd chastised my siblings for their dismissal during the build up to the eclipse, but the dissemination of myths and pseudo science made that a losing battle.

I reminded the older two of 1970's pass over maybe Maryland? We were in Sout' Jersey. Used my dad's ironworking welding helmets to view it in close to totality. We had the pinhole viewer stuff, too, learned in school, but the welding helmets were way cool if a bit stinky and heavy for little kids. Now they are telling people those super lenses on the helmets are not dark enough, but as I recall they were pretty occlusive with just the corona's diamond ring effect showing in a quite tolerable level of brightness. I've always been extremely light sensitive so maybe that's why it made such a huge impression on me.

Drop in temperature here was gradual and not significant, maybe a few degrees to five or so. Birds quieted early. Insects and amphibians continued to sing their anthems. In 1970, I recall frightened bird calls, not rapid chatter, but kind of mournful like "whooo? whyyy, whaaaa" almost pleading just as the moon edged over the sun. When I've been at space launches, it's almost the same. Everything seems to want to get home and sit quietly in the dark, including the alligators and fish. I think they have to be sensing something more than just the gradually darkened skies for both the launches and the eclipses. I thought with the launch they were sensing ultrasonic stuff, but I don't know.

The shadow passed several hundred miles to the south and the sky was a little hazy from the smoke of Canadian wildfires.

I became curious about temperatures and just checked the nearest WS station records. There was a 4°f drop from beginning to end of the eclipse. It was more noticeable to lose so much sunlight since we were out in the open garden.

Two ospreys flew over as the eclipse began but that isn't very uncommon. Neither was the dozen or so quail skittering about, throughout all of this growing season.

Heard a cricket ... big deal for me .

Steve

Missed it. I was still in the house getting breakfast. We only had a 27% eclipse and it was pouring rain. The eclipse was happening as the sun rose.

At our house we had 99% so we went down the road a ways a few towns over for 100%. We sat on a river bank and I did get some photos, I have not down loaded them yet. It was way cool, traffic even on the back roads was a mess.

We had about 1 minute of total darkness but total darkness was very strange, sky was still blue color and the clouds in the sky were still white and visible in the blue sky. Trees made shadows the whole time start to finish. Grass was green at the beginning and end but strange looking color in between. Birds were silent for about 4 minutes. Birds were probably thinking, What happened I didn't even have time to take a nap. LOL