Here in Nashville we were in the Path of Totality (I can't decide if that sounds like an early RUSH album title, or some nuclear war term . . . . . ), and they had lots and lots of parties and gatherings around town, from the Zoo to most every club downtown. Dead center of the P of T was a bit north of here, where NASA was ensconced, along with visitors from literally around the world, from Brazilians to Japanese, you name it.
The local gendarmerie were warning people NOT to stop along the Interstates to watch (3 of them cross here) . . . . . so I just decided me and Shirley and the Weber grill would watch it from my back deck, where around 1:30PM the sun is right overhead, visible even thru smoke from the grill !
It began at 11:58 and by 12:58 it was noticeably darkening outside: Different from a setting sun in that the color temperature never changed (in other words as it dimmed, it looked exactly the same color of light, dimming down as if you kept adding neutral density filters). Right before Totality (there we go again . . . . ) you could see Jupiter and Venus pop out of a dusky sky, and just as it went total, the bright ring around the Moon vanished for a second and then, wham, the corona appeared instantly, reminded me of how they'd strike an arc to start a big spotlight like a Super Trooper. Lasted here for just over two minutes, and even with the naked eye you could see solar flares looping up and back into the Sun. Amazingly, I did not see the 'worm shadows', but I did see the 360-degree sunset effect. Over the next hour-thirty it all reversed and by 3PM or so it was a normal day.
It was something I'd always wanted to see, and I was very glad I stayed home from work to view it. Not one to get all metaphysical about it, but it was an astounding display of mathematics and celestial mechanics. Even the NASA people were amazed that the track they predicted and the time line they had posited came to pass exactly as calculated. I'm sure by now there must be a program to figure this, but amazing to imagine 100 years ago with guys at blackboards for weeks.
