Eclipse Was a Shadow of a Spectacle in Chicago
Near-totality, it turns out, isn't a life-changing experience
Throwing a Little Shade at Chicago
If you were in or traveled to the path of eclipse totality, or if you watched it on TV as I did, the full solar eclipse was spectacular indeed. It must have been amazing, a lifetime experience, to have experienced it in person.
Home in Chicago, we were told to expect the moon to cover 94 percent of the sun, which sounded pretty close to total. I don’t have the camera equipment to capture the sun being overtaken, so I took a different approach by pointing my camera toward Lake Michigan and the skyline to see if there would be darkness at 2.
My summation: It was interesting, but as you view the photos, prepare for your mind not to be blown.
The sequence starts with the photo at the top, taken at 1:47 p.m. central time. The moon was probably already creeping up on the sun, but it looked like an average sunny early spring day.
By 1:50 p.m., the sunlight had dimmed a little.
1:58 p.m.
2:03 p.m., near maximum coverage
By 2:09, the moon had started its move on, and the shadows started to dissipate.
It was something a little different, but at no point was it anything but sunny out, and it surely didn’t feel like night had suddenly descended. That 6 percent non-coverage sure made a difference. And if I were a Rip Van Winkle and knew nothing about the eclipse, I’d have thought it was just haze from one of the first warm days of spring.
Congratulations to those who got the total eclipse. It must have been something.
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