Eclipse Day

Eclipse Day

Since most people haven't experienced a total eclipse and accounts of the eclipse usually only discuss the viewing of the Sun itself, I decided to further attempt to explain the difference between an eclipse day and a non-eclipse day.

I left my house about 30 minutes before the total eclipse during the partial eclipse, and though the sun was overhead, there was a perceptible lowering of light intensity similar to the time shortly after sunset when the sun is below the horizon and the light is subdued. However, with the partial eclipse there were sharp shadows being cast because the sun was overhead. Something was different, magical, and I felt euphoric.

I noticed that also, while sitting at the edge of the pond. The sun was overhead casting the strong shadows of the trees on the pond, and the light penetrated the water reflecting the bottom. At the same time the light intensity was like that after a sunset, diminished. This was odd too because there are no shadows cast after sunset. About 5 minutes before totality begins, a darkening in the atmosphere is apparent, but there are still strong shadows being cast. It's all quite magical.

There was another difference. After a normal sunset, darkness sets in very gradually taking 30 minutes for any appreciable darkness and another hour to the peak of darkness. In an eclipse event, just 3 minutes before totality with just a sliver of the sun left, it's still light with shadows being cast, but very quickly in 3 minutes you reach the peak of darkness. It happens that fast and remains that way for 4 minutes. Then very quickly just 3 minutes later, you're back to the same level of lightness. it's like time-lapse photography. Everything is ridiculously sped up.

My experience of the eclipse may have differed from other's because many people concentrated on viewing the Sun through dark glasses and miss the actual quality of the light in the atmosphere, whereas I didn't look at the Sun at all.

I'm not a painter, but if I were I would have been interested in the odd quality of the light before, during, and after the eclipse. I think it would be worthwhile the effort for painters to travel long distances to experience the event of a full eclipse because of the rare play of light that I have described. The consciousness of the painter is such that they are keenly aware of the different intensities and qualities of light. They are, chroniclers of light, they put down and preserve what others usually overlook.

I think the quality of light greatly affects the consciousness and moods of people, especially painters. I have been aware of a strange yellow quality of the light in the atmosphere that occurs two or three times a year usually around a rainstorm or cloudy sky. Everything obtains a unusual yellow hue, and it promotes a spiritual feeling, almost a feeling of cosmic consciousness. Everything takes on a spiritual quality, and I think painters in the past have tried to capture this feeling in their paintings. I call this event "perfect yellow," and I think it has inspired painters, who are chroniclers of light. The eclipse is a similar but much rarer event.

Before they eclipse event occurred, I downplayed and understated the importance of experiencing the event. Having experienced it, I realize its exceptional value, and wish I had gone outside earlier to experience the whole eclipse from the beginning of the partial eclipse to the very end. I would suggest that in the future it would be worthwhile for anybody to travel a distance to experience a total eclipse not to look at the sun directly but to experience the varying light levels and magical feelings it elicits.