Experiencing a Total Solar Eclipse
| [1] | |
| Me and friends took a driving trip this summer to be in the | |
| path of totality for a solar eclipse. More than anything else, we | |
| wanted to see the corona, which can only be seen, in the path of | |
| totality. We had seen photos of a corona many times, but none of | |
| us had never seen one in person. |
| [2] | |
| We picnicked as the eclipse began, the moon’s shadow | |
| gradually covering more and more of the sun. [A] About half an | |
| hour before totality, we could see a difference in the light seemed | |
| diffuse. We watched the colors around us wash out. The | |
| temperature cooled, a breeze began by which the air felt damp, | |
| and the insects started buzzing. |
| [3] | |
| As the time of totality grew near, in conclusion, the sky got | |
| darker and the lights came on in the parking lot where we stood. | |
| The sky darkened more, and someone exclaimed, ”There is a | |
| star!” A planet had appeared—as if it were night. We looked | |
| through our eclipse glasses, waiting for the moon to obscure the | |
| sun completely, waiting to see the corona, that black hole where | |
| the sun should be. |
| [4] | |
| There was the corona, the black hole with wispy white-light | |
| streamers in a perfect circle around it. For two and a half | |
| minutes, we stood in awe. All of a sudden, the sun was blindingly | |
| bright, and then—just like that—the corona was gone. |
| [5] | |
| Once again, there was the sun, our normal sun, which looked | |
| like a big bite taken. Totality was over. Light returned quickly. | |
| The air warmed back to a hot summer day. We looked up one | |
| last time through our eclipse glasses at the diminishing darkness | |
| covering the sun, and we got in our car and drove home, | |
| enraptured by our experience in the path of totality of a solar | |
| eclipse. |