Click to enlarge
Click to enlargeThe light went down as if a switch was being turned. It was like a late summer twilight with a glimmer of colour still in the west, but now the colour was all round the horizon, a red glow with green above, and dark cumulus masses before it. You could sense the Moon’s shadow filling the whole atmosphere. A pearly light was on the overhead altocumulus, and the clear sky between was a deep steel blue, contrasting with paler blue patches on the horizon. Then a clear patch overhead gave us a view of the eclipse itself, to the accompaniment of muted cries of awe. Then there was a dense patch, then another clearer patch, and there it was; the black Moon surrounded by the plumes of the corona north and south, like an orange ring of fire. Then a denser patch hid the sight, and as that cleared, a sliver of white fire appeared on the upper right of the Moon, and light returned. Although the Sun was still a narrow crescent, the light after totality seemed almost normal.