August 21 2017 partial solar eclipse, back garden

90% Eclipsed!

Okay, it wasn’t as big a thrill as in the fabled Path of Totality, but Victoria BC was the best place in Canada to view the Eclipse of 2017.

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Homemade solar eclipse viewer in use.

 

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This is as close as we got to totality.

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The dimmest part of the garden at 90%

The weirdest thing for me was the 3 degree (C) drop in temperature even though it was technically sunny. It’s also amazing how much light the sun emits even when it’s 90% obscured. I suppose that’s why so many people travel to zones of totality.

Time to make plans for April 8, 2024!

14 comments

  1. I was at the totality in Austria in 1999. Just before totality, although it was only semi-dark, the whole landscape seemed to go grey and all the birds fell silent. I was on a mini-mountain and it was really cold suddenly

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  2. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t see any stars 🙂 … but the drop in temperature was a bit unnerving. We expect it when a cloud covers the sun, but not when the sky is clear blue.

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    1. Amazing that such a simple thing (2 pieces of paper, one with a hole in it) should work so well. Adding a handle to the part with the pinhole made it even better. And it was a unique experience, even at 90%.

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    1. Something else are all those tiny crescents of light where it falls through natural “pinholes,” as in Venetian blinds or just tiny gaps among leaves, etc. I had a closer look at one of the photos I posted on my blog, and even found a few there.

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  5. We were also in the “path” and for me, the strangest thing was the afternoon light dimming as if it were about 6 or 7pm. The change in light caused the crickets to chirp loudly just as they often do in the evening.
    As soon as the eclipse was over the crickets stopped.
    My brother is in Columbia, SC and it literally went to about 9:30pm darkness! Amazing!
    By the way, your garden looks absolutely magickal!

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