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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ronh" data-source="post: 3608969" data-attributes="member: 55514">I was clouded out in Perry, Florida as a college sophomore in 1970 I think.  This second attempt was the charm.We had a nice clear totality view in Kearny, Nebraska.  Simple filtered glasses were the ticket for the partial phases.The binocular filters we had purchased were announced "not ISO approved" a couple of days before, so we didn't use them, and the cardboard constructed 2x ISO filtered Galilean field glass were more trouble than they were worth, requiring artful squeezing to reach "perfect collimation!", and revealing no more interesting detail than 1x.  I gotta tell ya'll, totality, observed with naked eye and unfiltered Leica 12x50 BN, was a trip. The corona, extending 2-3 diameters, had a unique texture like stretched gauze, and sufficient north-south and east-west symmetries to support the general idea of being strongly influenced by the sun's magnetic field. The ring of light surrounding the moon's darkness was bright but not uncomfortable to view.  At 12x, this ring of light became very interesting, showing a very rough texture and much pink color over a third of the circumference.  On the ground, the illumination was similar to mid dusk, but thanks to the small white source straight overhead, the effect was quite unique, much different from natural dusk with its sideways, broad sourced, and reddish light.  Colors appeared true, only very dim.  The dark blue sky was most unusual.My final observation is very subjective.  I experienced a kind of primal force I kid you not.  I did not want it to end.  I loved it, not like you love something cool like a new car, but like you love a person.  There was something intimate, wonderful and strange about it.  It is easy to understand the basic physical nature of the event, and interesting to see many excellent photographs of it, but you can't possibly understand how weird it is until you see one yourself. I wish one day a month could be like that, all day long.Ron</blockquote>

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