hewhobearsyeshua

Did you see it? It wasn't total where I was, but it produced visible effects, and I managed to photograph a few. What you cannot see in the photographs, however, is that it became noticeably dimmer than usual at the eclipse's height, and a bit cooler in the moon's penumbra. It was an interesting event — yes, only interesting, not thoroughly amazing as I am sure it was for those who were lucky enough to be in the path of totality.

I have never seen a total eclipse of the sun; however, I did once see an annular eclipse. That was on 10 May 1994. It was visible over Toronto, and we were told that the farther south we went, the more central the moon would appear on the sun's face. We were at the edge of the path of annularity, you see. In the city's more northerly neighbourhoods, it was a mere partial eclipse. The parallax was actually so fine that a few kilometres made that difference. I went chasing it on foot from central Scarborough, and reached as far south as the railway bridge over McCowan Road just south of Eglinton Avenue (here: 43.736307, -79.236994). That is where I was when the eclipse reached its height. The weather, though, was not favourable — or was it? There were thin clouds covering the sun, and this made it possible to look straight at the eclipse, which of course they tell everyone never to do, lest one blind oneself. You have seen the sun when there is that kind of weather, looking like a white disk in the sky. Well, what I saw then was a luminous ring shining in the sky through the clouds. That was the sun with the moon rather rudely getting in the way. The ring only lasted a few minutes, of course. I got no pictures of that one, though.

Anyway, the eclipse of 21 August 2017 was a different story. The weather locally was clear, and I got a good view, although never looking straight at it. I mostly enjoyed the effects that were visible on the ground. Have a look at the little album that I have put together and you will see what I mean. There are pictures looking straight at the sun, though. Those were accomplished using a blackened negative (remember photochemical photography?); I was willing to risk the camera's eyesight, but not my own. The blackened negative method is not good enough for human eyes, after all.