Eclipse anticipation

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

These are pics my husband took. The black black sky is an artifact of photography, not the color of the sky. But the obliterating moon was as black as black can be.

During totality. If this posts okay and you have a decent screen, you should see some reds patches at roughly 3 o'clock and 5 o'clock. Those are solar flares.

Post totality just as the sun begins to peek

[Smallsteps]

came and went so fast....... where I am was like 93% from what i gather many were throwing around all kinds of different %
it was like dusk outside from what others said, i don't know i was working and felt no need stop and to run outside.
I found the office mood hilarious though as so many got so caught up in the hype then felt let down somehow by the actual event. it is amazing how easy some people want to build up all events, often to point very few things live up to the hype.
Kudos to those locations that used the hype to sell things and cash in but for the rest of us the world keeps turning and a very short burst of semi-darkness did not change Monday at all.

[msomnipotent]

We drove from northern IL to southern IL to see it. It was handled much better than anticipated. No stores ran out of anything. Only a few places were closed. Traffic near Carbondale was a sight to behold, but it was expected. The traffic cops said it was no more bother than a playoff game. I heard that it was impossible to get in the town past 7 am on Monday, though. We went to SIU Saturday and Sunday. NASA was handing out a lot of stuff and they had all kinds of exhibits and speakers. My daughter learned a lot and got some materials for her science teacher, so I don't feel bad about calling her out of school. It turned out to be a nice mini vacation for us. I scoped out a spot at a large lake the day before. We did some fishing, some swimming, very little hiking because it was 100 degrees, and chatted some people up. The forecast called for clouds and a chance of rain, but there was only about 30 seconds of blockage from clouds and it was early during the eclipse.

The only drawback was that it took 5 hrs to get there and 12 hours to get home. We were expecting an extra 3 hours, but there were several accidents and a pretty good storm. People in IL are not known for their driving skills, especially Chicagoans. Most of us are jerks behind the wheel.

[Like2Plan]

These are pics my husband took. The black black sky is an artifact of photography, not the color of the sky. But the obliterating moon was as black as black can be.

During totality. If this posts okay and you have a decent screen, you should see some reds patches at roughly 3 o'clock and 5 o'clock. Those are solar flares.

Post totality just as the sun begins to peek

Joan,
Those are amazing pictures! What kind of camera did your DH use? We were not too far from you. We were going to drive to DeSoto, but we stopped at Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site and decided not to risk the traffic going further south (plus they had an air conditioned visitor center/museum ). We had about 1 min 30 secs of totality. It was an amazing experience. We didn't run into too much traffic except when we decided to swing by the Arch. Traffic was pretty stiff until the folks headed north to IL split off, then it wasn't too bad.
(We were headed to the airport ). We weren't planning on taking any pictures, but after we went to totality we couldn't help but snap a few iPhone pictures. But, the iPhone pictures were underwhelming.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Fuji X-T2. No tripod. Exposed for the corona, in other words, for daylight.

We think we had 2 min 35 sec of totality. It was over so quickly. We were in Chester, Illinois, pretty close to Carbondale where msomnipotent was. Lots of people went to Carbondale.

[TexasHusker]

It must have truly been an amazing experience, because there was a Weather Channel reporter who was bawling at the eclipse. Or perhaps she just needs to get out of the house a little more.

Myself, I was enjoying a pulled pork sandwich during the whole thing, and I didn't think it was worth it to stop eating just to look at something freaky in the sky. I'll try to catch it in 2024 if I'm still this side of the daisies.

[msomnipotent]

Fuji X-T2. No tripod. Exposed for the corona, in other words, for daylight.

We think we had 2 min 35 sec of totality. It was over so quickly. We were in Chester, Illinois, pretty close to Carbondale where msomnipotent was. Lots of people went to Carbondale.

Oh yeah, we were pretty close. I was at Crab Orchard lake. I wish we brought our real camera because our cell phone cameras didn't take anything decent. Our cottage is just about 30 mins from totality for the 2024 eclipse, so I guess we get another shot.

[~bs]

idk, for me personally i didn't even care about the eclipse at all. you can find way better pictures online than you could take yourself. I experienced a total eclipse when I was a child back in the 90s. Yeah, its cool when you're a kid, and if you have kids you want to experience it. But as an adult? meh, the sun comes out and goes away every day. Not a big deal. But that's just my .02

[disneysteve]

idk, for me personally i didn't even care about the eclipse at all. you can find way better pictures online than you could take yourself. I experienced a total eclipse when I was a child back in the 90s. Yeah, its cool when you're a kid, and if you have kids you want to experience it. But as an adult? meh, the sun comes out and goes away every day. Not a big deal. But that's just my .02

I think it probably would have been neat if we were somewhere near totality but we were only at about 75% which basically was like the sun going behind a cloud and it getting a little dimmer out for a bit.

[msomnipotent]

idk, for me personally i didn't even care about the eclipse at all. you can find way better pictures online than you could take yourself. I experienced a total eclipse when I was a child back in the 90s. Yeah, its cool when you're a kid, and if you have kids you want to experience it. But as an adult? meh, the sun comes out and goes away every day. Not a big deal. But that's just my .02

I saw a total eclipse in the 70's and still remember it. If I didn't have a kid, I would have stayed home for this one. But honestly, looking at pictures online just isn't the same. It was really cool and a great learning experience for my daughter. She loved the NASA booths at Carbondale and for some reason was so impressed with being able to talk to "real NASA people", even though the guy she was talking to had the same exact job title as my husband. It was a lot more than just an eclipse for her. But for the adults, not so much. I will do this again for our daughter since the next one will be close to our cottage, but I really don't understand why some people travel around the world to watch.

[~bs]

I think it probably would have been neat if we were somewhere near totality but we were only at about 75% which basically was like the sun going behind a cloud and it getting a little dimmer out for a bit.

non totality isn't anywhere near the same, unfortunately. I think it's only when the sun is almost completely blocked, it really gets dar,

[TexasHusker]

I think it probably would have been neat if we were somewhere near totality but we were only at about 75% which basically was like the sun going behind a cloud and it getting a little dimmer out for a bit.

One thing you can do and get approximately the same effect is step outside and close your eyes.