The Eclipse Of 2017

As the noted British astronomer Roger Waters once said, "Everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon."  Today, I got to experience that last line from the Pink Floyd song Eclipse first hand.  It took me two days of travelling, including a stay at my mother's house in west central Virginia, but I was able to make my way to my intended destination within the path of totality.  In Tennessee, there is a small city named Philadelphia, which includes a community park near its eastern boundary.  Since I had stayed in Knoxville, my drive to the park was relatively short.  Although I arrived shortly after 11 a.m., there were at least a dozen cars in the parking lot, and dozens of people already in the park.  Looking at their license plates, I'd say that some of these people had driven from much farther away than myself.

I eventually starting talking to some people who were hanging out in a covered picnic area.  One of them, to my pleasant surprise, wore a Virginia Tech T-shirt, which I did myself (although having two very different designs).  Another couple were from Ohio, and had constructed their own viewing glasses.  My fellow Hokie and his friends had some extra eclipse glasses, and were nice enough to give me one.  I used these to view the sun as it was slowly but surely being hidden by the moon.

In a happy coincidence, as the eclipse was progressing, my blogger friend Kel of Red Fox Blogger was starting her show on BlogTalkRadio, so I called in with what you could call my report from the field.  During and after my call, I could notice that the day was cooler and the daylight was dimmer.  It was as if someone had turned down the sun's brightness, which in a sense was happening.  Then, as I stood on the soccer field above the picnic area, the eclipse reached totality.  The sun's surface was covered, as the sun's corona was seen extending around the moon.  The sky and land around me appeared as they do as dawn or dusk.  It was dark out, but not quite like night.  I started to hear crickets chirping, like they do after sunset.  I could see a star to the right of the sun, which someone said was Regulus (of the constellation Leo).  Totality lasted a little over two minutes, after which the crescent-shaped sliver of the sun reemerged.  After five or ten minutes of gradually brightening sunshine, I decided it was time to hit the road.

Here's the park's baseball/softball field before the eclipse occurred.

This part of the park was separated from the parking lot by a line of metal stakes.  You could probably string barbed wire along them.

I don't think it was well-focused, but this is my picture of the total eclipse.

Finally, here's one from the road.  Across from the Tennessee welcome center along I-81 southbound is this scaled-up guitar.

Right now, I remain in Tennessee, but I'll be back in Virginia and Maryland very soon.