BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="b3rd" data-source="post: 3610533" data-attributes="member: 142099">So true. I had made plans before fully realizing this. As a photographer, I should have known that we experience light logarithmically, so the difference between 99% and 100% would be profound. Indeed like you said, it falls off the chart into a different kind of experience.To me, the partial eclipse is an experience of geometry. You see one thing pass in front of another thing, and that's about it. As you approach totality, some other more interesting things start to change. You see the dimming and coolness, you hear the cicadas, the crescent moon shadows through the deciduous trees. Its like a big science experiment. But as you get closer to totality, around 90% or so, everything gets a bit uncanny, and seems to foreshadow something really strange...And then in those final moments, you see the last sliver of the sun slip away like the last bit of a burning fuse. The glasses no longer work, so you take them off. And there is this glowing black orb in the sky that is like nothing you have ever seen.People are shouting, screaming. They can't control themselves. I'm one of them. Looking around, there is sunset everywhere, but its hard to look away for too long. I almost feel incredulous at what I am seeing. Am I still on Earth? It doesn't seem like something you could see from Earth. Incredible.We drove down to Pickens County, SC for the eclipse and brought solar and regular binoculars for the event. The solar binos were a fun trick, showing the event at 10x and getting a closer look. The 10x regular binoculars were great during the main event. They really helped to observe the corona up a little closer, although I probably spent only about 30% of the time looking through them because it was also amazing to see such a thing with one's own eyes, unaided by any instruments.8 hour drive there--12 hour drive back. Worth it.</blockquote>

Verification