We witnessed something very rare today, a partial solar eclipse. At first it looked like the clouds would spoil the show, but the cover wasn’t very thick and the sun was visible as a bright disc, and during the eclipse, a bright crescent. It didn’t get very dark during the eclipse and I didn’t get that special feeling I got back in July 1990 when I witnessed a total eclipse from our rooftop. I remember it was a very warm morning, very early so there was no traffic yet… it got very quiet, even the birds stopped singing. I can’t actually remember what the eclipse itself looked like, but I remember how warm it was and I remember the silence. Very special!
Anyway, not warm nor quiet today. I concentrated on shooting instead, but photographically speaking it doesn’t make for an interesting picture. A bright crescent against a black background, because the clouds had to be underexposed beyond recovery in order to draw out the crescent. But who cares, it’s a freakin’ eclipse! Next opportunity to see an eclipse of this size is in 2026. Maybe by then we have cameras with enough latitude to capture the crescent and the clouds…
I just have to mention, what an awesome 7 days it has been. First the brilliant day in the mountains with sunburst pictures, then the spectacular aurora on Tuesday and now the eclipse. Next week will probably feel extra boring!