Savor every moment when your plan for the day is watching a total eclipse. On August 21st, 2017 the moments were short, 2 minutes total if you were in Spray, Oregon. This wasn’t a typical editorial photography photo shoot. There was no time for error and advanced preparation paid off.
Just before the total eclipse is the first diamond ring, the last piece of sun glistening like a diamond before slipping behind the moon.
The halo around the sun during the total eclipse is the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. Comprised of super-heated plasma gas, temperatures run above 1 million degrees (f). Want to cool off? Try the sun’s surface at a mere 10,000 degrees.
The eclipse ends with the second diamond ring appearing briefly on the other side of the moon as light quickly returns to the land.
There were 17 people and 9 dogs at our eclipse viewing party. Before and after totality, shadows take on crescent shapes in correspondence with the percentage of the sun covered by the moon.
The next solar eclipse to cross the United States will be, April 8, 2024. See you then.