Witnessing My First Total Solar Eclipse
The Diamond Ring. At this very moment, the moon had just moved past obscuring the sun. The first bit of sunlight passing by the moon hits my camera lens.
Today, my wife and I witnessed something incredible. We can only describe it as one of the most amazing sights our eyes have seen.
After driving 900 miles, we arrived at the small town of Evening Shade, Arkansas. Soon, we found ourselves surrounded by people from Alabama, Michigan, Texas, California, Venezuela and even India! It was incredible to see so many people from many areas around the world, gathered to witness an incredible celestial event.
One that would only last 4 minutes, 13 seconds.
I am frantically scrambling to capture totality, in all of it’s glory. Those 4 minutes go by fast!
So many people took their Monday off to see what we saw. We watched as the sunlight started to dim, and the temperature dropped.
It started to get darker. And darker.
Soon there was a count down.
Soon, the street lights came on.
The birds stopped chirpping.
We heard crickets in the middle of the afternoon.
And suddenly, the last of the sunshine stopped shinning. It was dark. And it was incredible!
We could see Jupiter and Venus, in the middle of the day. I was not able to observe Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
My wife and I witnessed something we have never seen with our own eyes. We were able to look at the sun, study it, and see it with our very own eyes—without going blind.
My favorite memory of the eclipse was studying the Solar Prominences. We looked at the solar eclipse through my 8” Newtonian telescope (I had a 30mm eyepiece with a 35mm reducer). We saw the jets of fiery plasma being ejected out of the sun’s body, only to be drawn back in because of the sun’s strong gravitational pull.
Solar prominences. This photograph is the closest replication to what we saw through my telescope’s eyepiece.
We saw the 360º sunset, all across the horizon.
We have never seen such a sight. It was inspiring. It was terrifying. It was something that brought our hearts to a place of worship and adoration for God, creator of all things.
All in 4 minutes and 13 seconds.
And just as fast as it started, it ended!
An official report was made: 83ºF before the eclipse, 74ºF during totality.
And we had clear skies, with clouds surrounding much of the path of totality before and after us.
All of this was a gift God gave to us. It was His grace, that we did not deserve. Yet He chose to give it.
With all said and done, I read the perfect note from X (formerly Twitter) shortly after witnessing the eclipse. When I consider the end of this day from my thoughts, I cannot agree more with what Samuel Sey wrote:
One day, the world will standstill to see Jesus in the sky!
Many people paused their lives so they could travel hundreds of miles to see this incredible sight for just 4 minutes. How much more will we when the King of Glory comes?
Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
One day, your knee will bow. One day, your tongue will confess. Either you will do this out of adoration, love, and gratefulness … or … you will do it out of fear.
Beloved, have you been reconciled to our holy God?