An explicable but daunting alignment of massive bodies. Massive to me a mere human. Insignificant in scale in our universe, but still relevant. Relevant because the moon can be small enough and close enough to Earth and our Sun massive enough and far enough to every now and then collude to blot out the Earth from the Sun's light. We do not see this anywhere else in our observable universe. This trickery of orbital kinetics, whose mechanism we understand pretty well, gives meaning at least to those who have been conscious of the universe.
It was touted the Great American Eclipse because of the span of the moon shadow in total eclipse landing in the north Pacific, hitting land in Oregon, with Samurai sword precision diagonally slicing the USA until departing into the Atlantic in North Carolina before disappearing. The last one to be described as such occurred in 1918, when technology and means to access and capture the eclipse was limited. The next time it does a similar sweep in 2024, who knows what new understandings we can gain. This is not to belittle solar eclipses in other parts of world but to illustrate that the infrequency of such an event helps mark changes in humanity. In any case, as far as we know, the Sun, Moon and Earth only feel electromagnetic and gravitational forces between each other and certainly have no feelings for some abstract human constructs such as nation states.
My first experience of the total solar eclipse took place in Toccoa, Georgia, USA on August 21st 2017. This was a first experience for literally millions of people. Never before has such a big cosmic event captured the imagination of people from all walks of life, and made accessible to those who might otherwise never have dared to look up or travel to see a solar eclipse. Just by learning the reason for wearing certified eclipse glasses opens a child or someone new to knowledge of the cosmos towards a path of deep intellectual, emotional and spiritual understanding of how the universe works.
11:30 am. The enterprising town of Toccoa put together a little street party and probably gathered more people than it had ever hosted in a while. When Marilyn and I arrived in the late morning, many of the organised spectators had their outdoor chairs set-up and camera tripods arranged at various vantage points in squares, lawns and even parking lots. The restaurants and boutiques were busy along the main street in the run up to midday. It was quite interesting to see so many small businesses in this ''smallville USA'', geared up to sell food and merchandise. The commemorative t-shirt was too tempting to not purchase!
Random happy nerd (Courtesy of KMN)
12:00 pm. As we searched for a place to eat, we bumped into a lady and her son. All buzzed for the eclipse, enhanced by their coffee in hand, they were looking for some ice cream to sweeten that buzz. The ice cream shop was inexplicably closed. We got chatting and the lady told us that they were heading just out of town to view it all in a field inside the complex of the Georgia Baptist Conference Center. The modest but growing crowds in between the two-storey buildings, that essentially blocked much of the horizon, started feeling to us a restriction to what was going to happen above. We ate at a regular eatery and when the eclipse sequence began at 1:08 pm sauntered out for a first glance via the precious solar filtered glasses.
1:10 pm. First contact. As
if out of nowhere the ink black moon shadow smudged the top right
corner of sun like a circular lid covering a hot pot at snail's pace. In
reality the moon travels at almost 3,700 kilometres per hour. It was too early to observe any
effect on us here on Earth but one thing was for sure - the final countdown
had begun. I was one of only a handful with solar glasses on looking up.
Filters of these glasses prevent UV rays from penetrating the eyes and
damaging the retina. All you can see is the sun's disk in bright orange
and nothing else.
1:25 pm. Speaking
of snail's pace our lunch still hadn't arrived. The restaurant was
struggling to cope with the overload of customers. I mulled over how it
was possible for the sneaky moon to reveal itself in shadow then
disappear. Because the sun was only illuminating the far side of the
moon, we were never going to see the near side of loopy loony moon until
her grand appearance as a shadow puppet on the solar stage.
1:30 pm. Our lunch finally arrived. We
ate with urgency and decided that this once in a lifetime experience needed to
be panoramic with full relief. We drove back out into the winding roads
of the northern Georgia countryside past brick, wood and iron homes
surrounded by woods and fields. People were on their porches having
drinks and fiddling with their eclipse glasses when not stealing a
glance at the progress of the closure of the large cauldron lid. We weren't feeling it yet but the temperature was falling.
2:00 pm. On arrival, with sunglasses off, and glancing well outside of the solar periphery l could feel that the ferocious solar
luminosity was just as deadly. It was 3 degrees cooler than an equally
sunny day the day before at this time. The 300 metre
wide field was an opening in some woods that are part of the conference
centre property. The sun was high enough in the western sky to be clear
of the tree tops. We found a gentle slope in the field as a nice vantage
point.
2:10 pm.
The dark orb had by now covered over half the sun. The drop in solar
radiation could be felt and perhaps most of the heat we were currently
feeling was coming from the ground and atmosphere. The field had lots of people scattered around with excited
anticipatory chatter and slight anxiety about when to see what
phenomenon and how and, most importantly, making sure that junior doesn't
look directly at the sun.
2:15 pm. We
were fully settled on the slope. It was getting darker and darker. I had my ear to
the heart of mother nature, alert to the disruption to her natural
rhythm. I
could only imagine the subdual of little creatures in the trees.
Their foraging cut short, belly half full and probably worried about
opportune predators. It would have become a deathly silence if wasn't
for the very excitable cicadas in the trees that were now chirping even louder for the faux nightfall.
2:25 pm. Now the
sun was the crescent. The cauldron was almost shut. The sky was no
longer blue and the twilight was here. Entranced by the sun-moon shadow
play, l neglected the swift advance of the biggest shadow on earth from
the West. The crescent shrunk to just a baton and, pierced by the lunar craters and valleys, then beads in a split second and
then....
2.32 pm.
A burst of light around the moon shadow. The corona. We were now witnessing second contact. The surface of sun
was now showing its steamy aura and symmetrical glory. It is the
hottest part of the Sun (we still don't fully know why that is the case) but does not emit UV rays. The moon blocked the busy part of the central sun and rose the corona out of obscurity. We could
remove our glasses and stare up for just under 2 minutes. The
surrounding stars were visible. Observation of these stars almost 100
years ago proved Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, and launched him to global acclaim. The
corona, the
outermost visible atmosphere of the sun is a theatre of visible sunspots
and
solar prominences, and invisible ejections of plasma and cosmic rays.
The bottom right hand corner of the coronal orb had a solar prominence reaching hundreds of thousands of kilometres into space.
Compare that with the Earth's mere diameter of 12,742 kilometres!
Moment of totality seen through a quilt of colour filters (Courtesy of KMN)
2.33 pm. Those
precious 2 or so minutes were spent admiring the ever flowing
effervescent corona shaped by the deepest blackness of moon shadow you
could ever see in the night sky. I stole a few glances at the horizon to
the east that was in a sharp orange sunset glow then looked around at the
entranced human silhouettes. I looked back at the sun and spent the
last minute laid down on my back joining in the orchestra of reactions
(wow, ooh, aah, sooo cool...) and the occasional contemplative silence.
2.34 pm.
Pfff. If one could only imagine a sound that could describe the
disappearance of the corona, it would be that. Of course all this is
happening in the vacuum of space, and in reality the amount of solar
energy that the moon blocked is next to nothing compared to how much the
sun was pumping out across the solar system within those 2 minutes. The first halo of the
sun then appeared. We were officially in third contact. Many people burst into applause. There were lots of
squeals and occasional tears of joy all around.
Many
thoughts and emotions rushed through me, some unprocessed. One thing
that was clear and still remains today was the visual imprint in my mind
of an unusual moment. The rarity of the opportunity to view a solar
eclipse is certainly a meditation on the impermanence of experiences.
Depending on means and luck of location, most people have just a couple
of
chances to see any solar eclipse but probably just one chance to see a
total solar eclipse. By extension it is clear that life is short. It
is also clear that when a particular eclipse path repeats itself,
humans will have moved on to other forms of civilisation.
Whilst
our
existence has a mysterious meaning, the solar system cares not for our
well-being but somehow keeps the earth stable, faithfully orbiting
around
the sun and the Moon around the Earth. In the early days of the solar
system, the moon used to be closer the Earth and thus completely blotted
out the sun during eclipse. The moon orbit is tending away from Earth
and by the time we as humans are long gone or evolved into another type
of species or entity, our planet will no longer be graced with such near
perfection. The universe doesn't just align bodies for our
amusement.
Not
long after the moon moved to second contact, Marilyn quipped that it reminded her of the simple model of the atom. A
beautiful analogy, using our basic concept of the reality of the nano-scale that we still do not fully understand. The sun's corona as the
buzz of electrons, seemingly in any place at once, and the moon shadow
imitating the nearly invisible but influential nucleic cluster of
protons and neutrons. Therefore we can still unravel the forces of the
universe that we perceive by keeping a timeless imagination in our head.
