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During a total eclipse, the moon obscures the. entire disc of the sun, and you see the corona, or gaseous outside of the sun.
At the edge, you can see solar flares escaping between the mountains of the moon.
Len took this photo that shows some of these flares. Each one is hundreds of times the size of the earth. |
Total Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024
Viewing a total solar eclipse is a rare opportunity, and as everyone told us, it was deeply exciting. We were fortunate — and my brother Arny was diligent — in finding a very pleasant and convenient location from which to watch: a private event at Eagle Creek Foundation in Indianapolis. Attendees enjoyed lectures, three meals, parking, and lots of space on the grounds of the foundation’s building. The weather was beautiful — warm, only slight cloud cover, and no rain.
We set up at a location where we would be able to see the sun throughout the eclipse, which started at 1:50 PM, reached totality at 3:06 PM, and ended at 4: 23. Totality lasted for three minutes and 49 seconds — that’s VERY fast!
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Getting ready to listen to a presentation about the eclipse. The little girl’s shirt depicted celestial objects,
including the sun. |
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Setting up equipment: Len’s tripod has a tracking device so that
the camera always picks up an image of the sun. |
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| Arny set up several devices for tracking and photographing the sun throughout the eclipse. |
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| At lunch… hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and soft drinks! |
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Using nearly opaque viewing glasses is essential to avoid damaging one’s retina
Except during totality, it’s very dangerous to look directly at the eclipse. |
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| As the eclipse begins, the shadow of the moon takes a bite out of the sun’s disc. |
Total Eclipse
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The entire world seems to be in total darkness, but on the horizon there is light from the distant area
where there is not totality. It’s called a 360° sunset. |
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| The moment when the first rays of the sun come from behind the moon’s shadow. |
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Totality is ending: a sliver of bright sunlight comes from behind the moon.
 | At left you can see the shadow of a colander that we brought for viewing.
At right: during the eclipse, the shadow becomes a crescent instead of a circle.
This is due to the effect of light going through a slit (like the small holes in the colander.
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In Lafayette
We stayed in West Lafayette where my sister lives, and left in the morning of the 8th to drive to Indianapolis to watch the eclipse. Our departure was at around 9 AM on the day of the eclipse (April 8) and we arrived at Eagle Creek Park in around an hour. As everyone predicted, traffic after the eclipse was insane !! and the return trip took almost three hours.
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| White pelicans are migrating through Lafayette this week. Len and Arny went to see them. |
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| Wabash River bridge looking towards downtown Lafayette from our hotel room window. |
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My sister saved us some Hamantaschen from Purim.
She uses my mother’s recipe. |
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The trip home was fortunately uneventful. Just outside of Lafayette, we passed
this truck accident but fortunately there wasn’t much of a slowdown. |
Blog post © 2024 mae sander
All photos © 2024 by mae and len sander
15 comments:
Glad you got to see totality in IN! We had good viewing in OH. I was calling the red flame-like spots in the corona "flares", too, but have learned they're technically called "prominences".
Your hubby took some amazing photos Mae!
Great trip!! Thank you for sharing. We really were in Australia when the total solar eclipse was seen from Germany. Darn it... ;-)
I sat here when they mentioned it in the news now, 1999.. WHAT?! Unfair...
Great captures of the eclipse! I love the White Pelicans too.
Take care, have a great day!
You've been busy Mae. And Len snapped some fabulous photos of the eclipse. It looks like he has a wonderful sized lens. Does he do a lot of astrological photography? And wasn't the eclipse amazing? hugs-Erika
This was my first 100% totality and it was awesome. I'm so glad you also had an exciting experience. The photos are all wonderful.
Nice photos. Glad you got to see the eclipes. Have a nice day.
What a fantastic trip you had, I wish so much I had been there. The hotos are wonderful. And Hamantaschen, yes! Have a great weekend and thanks for sharing!
I wonder how many friendships were made by people meeting for the first time with the common goal of experiencing the eclipse?
You really got the "total" experience! This was wonderful. We saw the total eclipse, every bit of it, and from a great spot in 2017 (in Oregon) but were pretty much out of the path here in Florida this time. (We experienced that one in company of my sister and BIL -- your story reminded me of that wonderful time. She and I were just talking about how quiet it got and suddenly cold! ... It's great that you were able to hear astronomists lectures too.
I enjoyed the pics! Sounds like an amazing eclipse experience! Glad you had great weather!
Hello Mae,
What a great trip to see the eclipse! The White Pelicans are a favorite of mine! I enjoyed your photos and post. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great day and a happy weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.
Hello Mae :=)
Great photos of the eclipse. It went unnoticed by me, but I have seen one and it was amazing. I have never seen the White Pelicans,thank you for sharing the photo, and your sister's tart which looks very tasty.
All the best
Sonjiaa.
Beautiful pix of the eclipse! Lovely to see.
What a great post you did on the eclipse! I enjoyed the post AND the reports of the eclipse! We had a partial here and it wasn't as dramatic.
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