The Great Sun and Moon Spectacle

We are all in our places with sunshiny faces  ready to experience the astronomical event of the century, a spectacle that Mr. Sun, Sun, Golden Mr. Sun and the moon provided for us.

This is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Image by Kevin from The Beginning at Last

For us in Dallas, Texas, 2024 was the year when the sun and the moon put up an unforgettable spectacle for all of us to see. On April 8, 2024, the sun and the moon and earth lined up perfectly so that the moon fully covered the sun. We had a total solar eclipse, and we were lucky with the weather. I can add that experiencing a total solar eclipse is quite different from experiencing a partial or annular solar eclipse. I’ve experienced a partial solar eclipse as well and I can attest to the difference.

Unlike a partial eclipse, it gets dark during a total solar eclipse, the stars come out if the sky is clear like it was. The birds and the insects become quiet. It happens very suddenly, in just a few seconds. The total solar eclipse lasted four minutes.

The Motion of the Sun and the Moon

To understand what a solar eclipse is, the video below might help. What you see is the moon and the earth as seen from the sun’s viewpoint. We see earth all lit up by the sun, like a full moon, and we also see the moon lit up by the sun. 

In this situation, when the people on earth look up in the sky, they see the sun, but they don’t see the moon, even though it is there. It is a new moon, or a black moon if it happens twice in the same month. As the moon begins to partially cover the sun the shadows on the ground start looking different and if you use solar eclipse glasses you can see the sun disappearing and looking like a bright crescent, but it is still daylight and looking at the sun without eclipse glasses would just hurt your eyes.

Well, this is true until the sun is fully covered by the moon. When that happens, the light turns off and at that point it is safe to look at the sun without glasses. What you’ll see is a pitch-black circle in the sky surrounded by wispy faint lights. Those wispy faint lights are the sun’s corona.

Below is a youTube video showing an animation composed of actual satellite photos by NASA.

Solar Eclipse Preparation

I drank a very special beer for the occasion, a Trappist Belgian Strong Ale, or Quadruple, called Westvleteren 12 from Brouwerij Westvleteren (Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren).

Our patio table. The little brown packages contain AAS / ISO certified solar eclipse glasses.
Our daughter holding a Westvleteren 12 glass with a bow. Grandpa and grandma in the background.
Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd on the patio.

The Partial Eclipse Phase

It was partially cloudy during the partial eclipse, but we were able to get a good look at the eclipse as it progressed. As mentioned, to see the partial eclipse, you have to use good solar eclipse glasses. It is primarily for safety reasons, but it is also pointless to look at the sun during a partial eclipse. You won’t see the eclipse crescent because the powerful light from the sun overwhelms your view.

I had a little filter that was placed in front of my phone camera as I took a few pictures. Admittedly they were pretty bad. I have an old Samsung Galaxy S8+ but even using newer phones it is difficult to get decent photos of something like this.

Partial eclipse photo taken with my old Samsung Galaxy phone and a filter.

The Total Eclipse

At 1:40PM Dallas time the total solar eclipse happened and luckily it was not covered by clouds. At this point it suddenly got dark and it was safe to look straight at the sun without using the eclipse glasses. The total eclipse lasted four minutes. I have included a shutter stock photo below which closely represents what we actually saw. We saw a black circle and around the black circle was a wispy white fog like light. This was the sun’s corona and it shone with about the same power as the full moon. It kind of looked like a black hole.

Except for the black background this looks like what we saw with our eyes. The sky we had was dark, like twilight, but not black. Solar Eclipse Stock Photo ID: 2344355767 by aeonWAVE

The Stars and the Planet Venus

Total solar eclipse photo that my daughter took. Can you find Venus?

Total Eclipse Photos

These eight pictures were taken with cell phones by my daughter Rachel, Denise Mosier-Wanken, and Margaret Weiss Bloebaum.

Did you see the total solar eclipse?

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

44 thoughts on “The Great Sun and Moon Spectacle”

  2. Thank you for those delightful photos Thomas… I have only ever witnessed a partial eclipse never a total one in person .. Although I have seen the one you spoke of via others who were at key places around the World to witness first hand..

    I know the partial one I experienced was eerily cold as the sun was blocked out, even the birds stopped chirping in our garden… I got the best picture of it by looking at the suns reflection, from standing with my back to the sun outside, looking onto its reflection in our kitchen window.. 🙂

    Have a wonderful Sun Filled Year!…. Though I do believe we are both in for a cold snap in both our countries shortly .. 🙂

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    1. It got cold and the birds stopped chirping. It guess it must have been close to a total. I’ve been in a partial and a total. The shadows change during a partial. The shadows of the leaves look like moon crescents, but it was still bright. What I think is so amazing with a total is that it gets dark, very suddenly, like someone turned off the lights, the stars come out, it feels colder, it becomes quiet, and you can look straight at the sun without sun glasses because it is just a black circle with a shinnering wispy corona. Both are fun experiences though. It is great that you were able to get a good photo of it by looking at the suns reflection.

      You are right, we are in for a cold snap too, even here in Texas. Temperatures are supposed fall into freezing tomorrow. That doesn’t happen often here, but it will happen tomorrow.

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  3. Very good to be reminded of that day. I like the information, and the photos you took, and the fun preparations y’all made on the patio. Here we didn’t get the full eclipse, but we enjoyed seeing what we could. 🙂

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    1. A partial one is fun too, but I have to admit a total solar eclipse takes the cake. It was better than I imagined. It got dark, very suddenly, the stars come out, it felt colder, it became quiet, and you could look straight at the sun without sun glasses because it was just a black circle with a shimmering wispy corona, bigger than the full moon, but not much brighter than the full moon.

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    1. Yes I can imagine that you must have been thinking about that. It is an amazing experience for a modern human who knows what it is. I had a hard time believing my eyes as the sun turned off and was replaced by a black circle surrounded by a wispy corona larger than full moon but not much brighter. You could look straight at it without sunglasses. It got dark, quiet and the stars came out. The lights turned off in two seconds and it lasted four minutes. Imagine seeing this and having no idea what it was.

      I should add that if you used the solareclipse glasses you could of course see it slowly happening. The sun turning into a crescent and slowly vanishing over an hour. Howeverm without the solareclipse glasses you could not see the sun crescent, just a bright light that turned off in two seconds.

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  5. Oh man, Thomas, this post is so cool! I didn’t get the chance to see this Solar Eclipse you mentioned here in April but I have seen them before and they are an amazing phenomena. 🌕 ☀️ Thanks for sharing your photos and all this nifty info, as well as a cute photo of Rollo! ☺️

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    1. Thank you so much Laura. The difference between a partial and a total is very big, something I did not fully realize until I saw this total. The partial lasted for one and a half hour and it was cool but you could really only see the sun crescent using solar eclipse glasses. You saw the strange crescent like shadows, but it was still day light. Then when the total happened, it got dark, very suddenly, in two seconds, the stars come out, it felt colder, it became quiet, and you could look straight at the sun without sun glasses because it was just a black circle with a shimmering wispy corona, bigger than the full moon, but not much brighter than the full moon. Then on the right side of the black sun/moon a huge bright star lit up and in just a couple of seconds it got bright again and the stars all vanished. Now you had put on the solareclipse glasses again.

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  7. Only a very partial eclipse here. I punched a hole in a box and taped a piece of paper inside to look at it that way. If we still lived back in our old place in New York, though, we could have easily driven into the path of totality (which my nephew did; he got some really cool pictures). Then again, we could have ended up like my friends in Rochester where it clouded up for the eclipse and cleared up shortly afterwards, because (as per my old Murphy’s Law calendar), “Nature is a Mother” … 😁

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    1. We had a partial eclipse back in 2017 and that’s what I did too. It is a good idea. It also looks cool with solar eclipse glasses, but the totality is quite a bit more amazing. The pictures we took with our cell phones does not do it justice. Not even the stock photo does it justice, because the background is completely black, which means the photo must have taken through a filter. In the reality, the sky was dark, like twilight, but not black. There were stars and clouds, as well as the impressive the black circle instead of the sun. I have not seen a single photo that captured that very well. I am sorry about your friends in Rochester. We were so lucky with the weather.

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  10. Fantastic rundown of the different eclipes. And great pictures! What I remember most about the partial eclipse, was the sudden silence. How amazing nature is to adapt into darkness mode so suddenly. 🙂

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  11. Thanks for sharing your eclipse photos. Sadly, even as a professional astronomer, I’ve never had the opportunity to see a total eclipse. I have seen several partial eclipses and even an annular eclipse — all of which were very cool — just never a total. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to correct that someday!

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    1. And if there was one where you live I’ll bet you would have to work. However, I hope you get to see one. I saw that there are a few totals coming up in a few years but they are all overseas. I’ve read that the next one in the US is 2044.

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      1. In fact, I “missed” the total you saw because I was at work, out of the line of totality. I did see the eclipse but we were just far enough west at the observatory that it was only a partial eclipse. And we did get some interesting science out of the eclipse. By watching the moon pass in front of the sun, the WIYN telescope obtained data which now helps determine an exoplanet’s rotational spin direction when the planet passes in front of its star.

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    1. Thank you, Sara. The problem with the cell phone images is that they make the moon/sun look small and the corona really big. In reality the black circle was as big as the full moon, which it actually was, and the corona was maybe another moon diameter, maybe two, and it is also less bright than in the cell phone pictures. But the amazing thing is that you cannot see the corona without a total solar eclipse. You can’t look at the sun with the naked eye because it is too bright, and you won’t see the corona, and if you put on solar eclipse glasses the corona disappears. But with the total solar eclipse you can see the corona with the naked eye.

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  16. We were lucky and able to view the total eclipse in our area, but it was a bit cloudy and my photos didn’t turn out so well. Thanks for sharing these much better ones! It certainly was a momentous event. Rollo looks so cute with his little red cape. 🙂

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  17. Four minutes is wonderful! I saw a full eclipse in Oregon a few years ago (or more) and it was only for about 40 seconds. We had to drive a couple of hours south to get a good view and I had to be careful not to fiddle with my camera the whole time because it went by so fast. What an interesting experience. I was impressed that you made a party out of the event and got to stay in your own back yard!

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    1. It is great that you got to see one in Oregon but I am sorry you had to drive two hours. We were very lucky to have it right here in Dallas. I’ve read that more than 100,000 people travelled to Dallas for the event and the hotels were full, but we had a backyard party.

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