April 8th, 2024: The eclipse that seemed to overwhelm social media with tales of woe, doom, and impending apocalypse. Or was it fulfillment of prophecy? I am still a bit confused. What I saw was one celestial body cutting in line and trying to steal the show.
The Experience
I have always enjoyed a good astronomical event. While we could have traveled to see totality, the complexities of making that happen was more than we wanted to tackle. Rather than join the throngs who gathered along that narrow belt for the big show, we found seats in our driveway and took in the sight in relative peace. While I know we missed an awesome show, we got to experience something we otherwise would have missed.
The Plan
I set up a tripod and my camera in the driveway. I switched between looking through eclipse glasses and studying the live image being sent to my phone from the camera. We had some light, high altitude cloud cover, so I knew getting a clear image was going to be difficult. This would not be as easy as the last time we did this. I went in knowing my goal was to relax and enjoy the show, not stress over getting the perfect image. After all, there is no eclipse photo I can capture that will stand out among the millions of images to be shared.
Cutting In Line
We watched the majority of the “show”, being set up before the moon broke the circle of the Sun. As the moon began to bite in, I start hearing seagulls. They slowly began to fly up from behind the houses across the street. Occasionally, a shadow darts across my camera’s field of view, but I was never quite quick enough to catch it. The skies continue to darken, the birds take to various perches, and we watch. After cutting in line, as it were, the moon moves on and the local wildlife wakes up. We hear the thump of robins chest-bumping as they vie for prime real estate across the street. Barn swallows zip and glide over our heads. Sparrows emerge from their nest beneath our mail box.
Despite all of the premonitions, no pit to hell opened up and the Rapture did not occur. But a miracle did happen, one for which I will be forever grateful. As my wife and I decided it was time to get back to life as usual, our teenage son, at that age where he is supposed to hate his parents and be rebelling, said, “I don’t want go inside yet. I am enjoying spending this time together.”
