It was dubbed the “Great Solar Eclipse”, the Great North American Eclipse”, and several other lofty names, but in the lower Susquehanna valley, where about 92% of totality was anticipated, the big show was nearly eclipsed by cloud cover. With last week’s rains raising the waters of the river and inundating the moonscape of the Pothole Rocks at Conewago Falls, we didn’t have the option of repeating our eclipse observations of August, 2017, by going there to view this year’s event, so we settled for the next best thing—setting up in the susquehannawildlife.net headquarters garden. So here it is, yesterday’s eclipse…
Here’s one of our first views through a break in the clouds as photographed using a number 12 welder’s glass to shield the camera.A shot through the welder’s glass with minimal cloud cover reveals a sunspot (AR3628) visible at between ten and eleven o’clock on the solar surface.Clouds aren’t necessarily a bad thing during a solar eclipse. Putting the welding filter aside, we were able to photograph the sun directly, without risk of damage to the camera. Again, sunspot AR3628 can be seen just off the limb of the moon at between ten and eleven o’clock.It’s 3:21 P.M. E.D.T., and it’s about as good as it’s going to get. Fortunately for us, the clouds are maximizing the effect.The sky darkened dramatically as the moon obscured more than 90% of the sun’s disk. Looking toward the northwest, where observers in locations including Erie, Pennsylvania, were experiencing a total solar eclipse, the sky appeared almost night-like.Here in the lower Susquehanna region, the clouds made our partial solar eclipse an eerie one.Our home-brew solar-powered radio shut down.Our male Mourning Dove perched above its nests site and began a premature evening chorus of sorrowful coos.The flock of Fish Crows that has been lingering in the area for several weeks was seen making their way to a small grove of nearby evergreens where they often spend the night.Since early winter, Turkey Vultures have been roosting at a site about a half mile from our headquarters. Each evening, they can be seen leisurely riding the late afternoon thermals as they glide in to pass the night at their favored resting spot. During the height of the eclipse, as clouds co-conspired to quickly darken the sky and diminish the thermal updrafts, our local vultures were making a hurried scramble, flapping madly to get back to their roost.Within fifteen minutes, the cloud cover thinned and the moon started to slide away. Rays of sunshine quickly renewed the pace of an early spring afternoon. Soon, the bees were buzzing around, the crows were out looking for trash, and the vultures were piloting the skies in search of deadbeats.The Great Eclipse of 2024 left us with a sunny smile.
Was there a better place to have a look at the dark side of the moon easing across the summer sun than from the Pothole Rocks at Conewago Falls? O.K., alright, so there must have been a venue or two with bigger crowds, grand emotions, prepared foods, and near darkness, but the pseudolunar landscape of the falls seemed like an ideal observation point for the great North American solar eclipse of 2017.
The craters of the moon right here on earth, the Pothole Rocks of Conewago Falls.
Being the only person on the entire falls had its advantages, not the least of which was the luxury of pointing the camera directly at the sun and clicking off a few shots without getting funny looks and scolding comments. Priceless solitude.
Point that camera right at that eclipse for a nice little photograph of the big event.
If you think it looks like the above photograph was taken in a house of mirrors, then you’re pretty sharp. You’ve got it figured out. After getting a bad case of welder’s burns on the first day of a job at a metal fabricating shop during my teen years, I learned the value of a four dollar piece of glass.
A number 12 welder’s lens in action while viewing and photographing today’s solar eclipse.The eclipse at 2:19 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time (18:19 U.T.C), nearly as good as it was going to get at Conewago Falls. The lunar disc would continue to the left, leaving the top fifth of the sun “uneclipsed”.
For those of you who prefer not to look at the sun, even with protection (I heard those S.P.F. 30 sunblock eye drops were a fraud…I hope you didn’t buy any.), here is the indirect viewing method as it happened today.
The eclipse is projected into the bottom of a cavernous hole in a Pothole Rock. (Three or four people can sit inside this hole.) The tube, lenses, and mirrors of one side of a pair of binoculars were used to focus the thin sliver of sunlight onto the diabase stone “floor”. The optics have inverted the image.
If you were to our south in the path of totality for this eclipse, you probably noted reactions by flora and fauna. Here, there was really not much to report. The leaves of Partridge Pea didn’t fold for the night, birds didn’t fly away to roost, and the chorus of evening and nighttime singing insects didn’t get cranked up. The only sensation was the reduced brightness of the sun, as if a really dark cloud was filtering the light without changing its color or eliminating shadows. And that was the great solar eclipse of 2017.
