The sun’s glow as the moon conquered and froze everything. The red flares and eeriness of it all.
2:33 mesmerizing minutes of wonder and astonishment
We gasped, cheered and shouted at the event. Unable to fully comprehend what was going on for it doesn’t make sense.
The light started changing 20-30 minutes before totality. Birds started singing like at dusk: Sparrow, Purple Martin, Killdeer and most remarkably an Eastern Meadowlark with its melancholic song.
It was a peculiar atmosphere, as if the colors were fading. Someone describing their eclipse experience in a youtube comment used the word eerie and it’s spot on. An hour before, I asked Eli if it was gonna get cold and it did, indeed! I put on my sweater and offered my jacket to Lolo. Was glad to share a rare moment with people I love so much, my love and my sister in law.
Such a sharp image in your brain
A few minutes before totality, everything got dark, we were in place in our comfy chairs, excited. Seeing the moon progress was beautiful, as it was eating or fighting the Sun. Such a sharp image in your brain, a vibrant golden yellow being slowly and surely conquered by the intense and deep shadow-like Moon. I was so glad to know there was more. Finally, only a sliver remained and at that point we were shouting in excitement and wonder.
We might have taken too long a time to remove our glasses, as we missed the diamond effect of the Sun reclaiming its glow. I later learned in amazement that the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun and 400 times away from it and that’s why it’s possible to see this event.
The emotion felt by seeing the Sun’s glow as the moon stood in front of it is unlike anything I’ve experienced.
There was a tiny red dot of plasma in the lower right and we kept mentioning it. We gasped and held our breaths, unable to fully express what was happening or how it made us feel. I looked around to see everything dark and eerie, people looking up in awe. I looked back and tried to take it all in, to feel and enjoy every precious second. The silver glow had kind of a blue-ish hue, magnificently accentuated by the red flares.
The Moon conquered in this brief moment of time that froze everything.
2:33 later, enormous smiles on our faces, contentment and wonder in our minds, we hugged and shared loving words. The family that had pulled in behind us in the motel’s parking lot left immediately which made us laugh. We thought for sure we would be the first ones to leave as we were eager to dodge traffic and get home early.
I flew 6 000 kilometers to this side of the great pond for this eclipse. April 8th 2024, my first total eclipse. What a incredible gift of nature four days after my birthday. I found out that the Sun has a cycle of 11 years and that it is reaching its peak activity. That is apparently why we got to see the solar flares, what we identified as red dots of plasma.
So worth it I started thinking about the next one in Catalonia in 2026.
Seeing the eclipse was so worth it, I already started thinking about the next one in Tarragona, an hour from Barcelona, in the summer of 2026. I mentioned it to all my friends while telling then about my experience. I even e-mailed my astrophysicist ex, wondering if he’d seen it as I know he researches plasma and the Sun. He was glad I managed to catch ‘a glimpse of the eclipse’. He sent me this link of my birthday’s Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
A great reminder to appreciate and enjoy our great Star and the wonders of life it does for us.
My eclipse journey made me want to celebrate my two favorite entities. I’ll be loving the Sun and Moon more and more.
