A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade

Esther’s writing prompt: October 8 : Shade

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On April 8, 2024, a narrow sliver of the United States, including Dallas, where we live, experienced a total solar eclipse whilst most of the United States experienced a partial solar eclipse. We also had a three hour long partial solar eclipse and the total solar eclipse lasted four minutes. To explain, first there was a one and a half hour partial solar eclipse, then the total solar eclipse lasting four minutes, and then a one and a half hour long partial solar eclipse again. A partial solar eclipse is interesting, but a total solar eclipse is something else entirely. A total solar eclipse is the ultimate moon shade and an unforgettable lifetime experience.

We were all sitting outside in our backyard having a little party, drinking beer and eating snacks, as the partial solar eclipse began. During the partial solar eclipse, it was still daylight, and you could not look at the sun unless you had ISO certified solar eclipse glasses, which we did. When you put on the solar eclipse glasses you could see that the sun looked like a crescent. This was not possible to see without the solar eclipse glasses, and you certainly should not look at the sun during a partial solar eclipse.

Suddenly, it got dark, not entirely dark, but more like as if it was well into twilight. The sun turned into a black circle surrounded by a faint wispy light. That was the sun’s corona, which normally is invisible due to the sun’s powerful light. The sun’s transformation only took a few seconds. The darkness fell extremely fast as if someone turned off the lights. Now you could look straight at the sun without the ISO certified solar eclipse glasses. Looking straight at the sun during a total eclipse is perfectly safe since all you see is a black circle in the sky. What you see is the black moon. The sun is hidden behind the moon. However, you need to be ready to put on your glasses, or turn your head, when it is time for the sun to come back.

As the sun suddenly vanished, the birds and the insects became quiet. The stars came out. Venus appeared above our heads, not far from the sun. It shone brightly in a location where you normally never see Venus. Venus typically appears above the western horizon after sunset (the evening star) or above the eastern horizon before sunrise (the morning star), not right above you. It was quiet, dark, the sky was beautiful and filled with stars, and there was a black circle in the sky surrounded by the magical faintly shining corona.

I knew what was coming next as the four minutes came to a close, so I put my ISO certified solar eclipse glasses back on. At first, I saw nothing. Then I saw something that looked like a big star that was quickly expanding like a super nova and turning into a thin bright thin crescent. The lights came on, the stars and Venus disappeared, the birds and insects began making noise again. Daylight and the whole world returned in just a few seconds. Now we had another one and a half hour of a partial solar eclipse to enjoy (using our solar eclipse glasses).

Map of north America showing the path of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Several cities in the path of totality are marked | A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade
Path of totality (total solar eclipse). I am allowed to use this image as long as I link back to the National Eclipse. Click on the image to visit the National Eclipse.

What is a Total Solar Eclipse?

Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, blocking the Sun’s light and casting a shadow on Earth’s surface. This is illustrated in the picture below. As you can see there’s a weaker but larger shadow covering a portion of earth. This corresponds to the moon not blocking all of the sun, which results in a bright sun crescent. The darker smaller region/circle on earth corresponds to the moon blocking all of the sun resulting in near total darkness. This is the region on earth that has a total solar eclipse.

The illustration shows the sun on the left, then the moon blocking the sun’s light for earth, which is located on the right.
Solar Eclipse with Sun Moon and Earth Orbit. Shutterstock Asset id: 2292547031 by Nandalal Sarkar
Blue planet earth with a small moving dot for totality and a big blue shadow showing the extent of partial solar eclipse | A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade
Gif animation illustrating totality and extent of partial solar eclipse. Official work for NASA.
The photo shows a dark blue sky and a black circle surrounded by a wispy light. That is the sun’s corona.
Solar Eclipse. The moon moving in front of the sun. The wispy light is the sun’s corona. It is typically invisible due to the sun’s strong light. It is fine to look at the sun’s corona with the naked eye. It is not very bright, more like the moon’s light. I can add that this photo corresponds the closest to what we saw with our naked eyes. Asset id: 2441654015 by GagliardiPhotography
Solar Eclipse photo | Black circle surrounded by a wispy white fog like light. That’s the sun’s corona | A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade
Solar Eclipse photo taken with a photo filter solar Stock Photo ID: 2344355767 by aeonWAVE
The photo shows total solar eclipse, the sun totally covered by the moon. It is very small in the photo. There is a star-like object, that’s Venus, a cloud and airplane contrail.
Total solar eclipse photo that my daughter took with her iPhone. The sun, I mean the moon, looks small in the picture, but they were the normal size. Can you find Venus?
Photo of my 10 solar eclipse glasses | A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade
My solar eclipse glasses that I bought on Amazon.

Partial Solar Eclipse

As I said, most of the country had a partial solar eclipse and we had a partial solar eclipse as well as a total solar eclipse. During a partial solar eclipse, it does not get dark, no stars come out (the sun is too bright), the birds don’t stop singing, and you cannot see the partial solar eclipse with the naked eye. You need ISO certified solar eclipse glasses. However, there are other cool effects such as the shadows of the trees turn into thousands of little crescents.

The photo shows a shiny crescent on black background.
Partial eclipse photo taken with my old Samsung Galaxy phone and a photo filter.
The moon is passing in front of the sun causing a partial solar eclipse.
Illustration / enhanced photo of partial solar eclipse. Shutterstock Asset id: 2237042889 by Kolonko

Annular Solar Eclipse

Lastly there are also annular solar eclipses. That is almost a total solar eclipse, but the moon is not covering all of the sun’s disc resulting in circle of the sun being visible. It is similar to a partial solar eclipse in the sense that it is still daylight, the stars won’t come out, etc. I can add that even though the light is dimmed a bit during an annular solar eclipse it does not get dark as during a total solar eclipse. The picture below is a bit misleading in that sense (probably a photo filter).

A ring of fire around a black circle with a silhouette of a dromedary camel | A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade
Annular solar eclipse in desert. Liwa desert, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Shutterstock Asset id: 1598991664 by Kertu

Miscellaneous Solar Eclipse Photos taken with Cell Phones

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

If you want to read more about this experience you can click here or here.

To see the Super Facts click here

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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.

75 thoughts on “A Total Solar Eclipse the Ultimate Moon Shade”

    1. Thank you so much Carol. It was a surreal experience. I am so glad I got to see it my backyard. The next one is on August 12 2026 but you have to travel to Spain or Iceland to see it. The closest total solar ecplise to you is probably the one on July 22nd 2028 in Australia (or New Zeeland).

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      1. Hi Thomas…my daughter lives in Perth so if I am still around a visit to Perth sounds like a plan 😀and I would love to experience a total ecplise thank you for that info…Have a great rest of the weekend 😀x

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        1. I would love to visit Perth but unfortunately the path of the total solar eclipse goes from northwest Australia to Sydney and won’t get close to Perth. However, you and your daughter could take a weekend in Sydney (the total solar eclipse will happen in Sydney Saturday July 22nd 2028 at 2:00PM). Have a great rest of the weekend you too.

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  3. When I was a kid, my town was one of the best placs to see a total eclipse. Back then, the options to be able to look at it were very limited. My dad made a box with a pin hole so we could stick our heads in and watch the shadow of the moon, cross over the reflection of the sun on the opposite side of the box. (Not look out out the pinhole). I remember the world being in total darkness even though it was morning. When I hear about them now, I imagine people in prehistoric times thinking the world was ending. Maggie

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    1. That is fascinating. We made a pin hole camera for the partial solar eclipse in 2017, but since we had solar eclipse glasses for the partial portion of the 2024 eclipse, and well the total you just look straight at with your naked eye, we did not make one for the April 8 2024. That it get so dark and so suddenly is very cool, which remind me that I forgot to mention that it felt a bit cooler too. It must have felt weird that it was dark in the morning, and for us it was close to noon, which is also felt weird. One good thing about the fact that it get sdark during a total solar eclipse is that bad weather won’t ruin that experience. We had good weather, so we could see the stars come out, but if we didn’t at least we would have seen it getting dark in two seconds. You are right. It must have been frightening to then the people in prehistoric times .

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Audrey. We also took photos of the crescent shadows while it was still a partial solar eclipse. We saw a partial solar eclipse in 2017 and if you count the partial portion of the solar eclipse in April 2024 we saw a second one then.

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  6. I would love to experience a total eclipse but one will probably have to pass directly overhead where we live in order for it to happen. I’m not going to fight the crowds that gather to see them on land, and I am definitely not getting on one of those ships that goes out into the ocean to position themselves underneath them for an Eclipse Cruise …

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    1. Yes I can understand that. We didn’t travel for the 2017 solar eclipse (so we only saw the partial) and we were lucky enough to be in the perfect spot for the 2024 solar eclipse. We sat in our backyard and ate and drank beer and I was grilling. Due to the fact that the next total solar eclipse in the United States is not going to be until 2044 we are going to have to travel to one.

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    1. Thank you so much Lynette. We used a pinhole box for the partial solar eclipse in 2017. I should say a total eclipse is totally different from a partial, so we did not use a pinhole box for the 2024 eclipse. We also had solar eclipse glasses for the partial portion. Basically you don’t need a pinhole box or solar eclipse glasses during a total soler eclipse since you can observe everything with the naked eye.

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  9. I love any kind of eclipse and really enjoyed learning more about them. My mum loves them too and I remember when I was a kid, we sort of ditched my aunt and uncle to go see the eclipse happening and it started a whole thing lol.

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    1. Yes I agree with your. I’ve seen partial solar eclipses (in 2017), and various lunar eclipses, and they are all fun to see. However, the total solar eclipse was something totally different, and I have to admit it was more than I expected. The world turning dark, almost like in the middle of night, and the stars coming out, it suddenly cooler, all in two seconds, and the sun tunring into a black circle surrounded by a faint wispy shine (corona), and you could look straight at it with the naked eye, that was just something a lot more impressive than a partial solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse.

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  11. Java Bean: “Ayyy, we have seen articles about a total eclipse of the moon, and we have seen articles about a total eclipse of the sun, but why haven’t we seen any articles about a total eclipse of the heart?”Lulu: “Well you know how the song goes, Bean. There’s nothing to say about one of those.”

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        1. To be honest the partial solar eclipses were less interesting than I expected and the total solar eclipse was a lot more amazing than I expected. I can understand people who travel for them, even though that may seem excessive.

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  13. Very nice post about the total solar eclipse, an event I have never managed to witness. I was in Arizona in 2024 during the eclipse you describe and we discussed it in the post I wrote about the science we achieved while the eclipse occurred.

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  14. Interesting to learn more about solar eclipses. You have some excellent photos too! 👌 We were also fortunate to experience last year’s total eclipse at a local park. It seemed otherwordly! 😎 Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good shots.

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      1. Thanks for the compliment and the Thanksgiving wishes! 🙂 I couldn’t get a proper lens filter for my Canon (I waited too long and they were sold out everywhere), so I had to rely on my old and cheap mobile phone. It’s camera capabilities aren’t very good.

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        1. During the total eclipse I just used my Samsung Galaxy S8. Except for the fact that the sun-moon-black-circle pair looked small in the photo, it did come out. It wasn’t too bright, like a black circle surrounded by wispy light as bright as the full moon. I used a solar filter I bought from Amazon for partial eclipse part, which was very bright. I just held the filter in front of my phone. OK, as you can see, it isn’t great but it worked somewhat.

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  18. I remember your post about the eclipse just after it happened, Thomas. The graphics and images in this post are fascinating (and beautiful). The NASA clips is especially cool. I’ve experienced one full eclipse, and I can understand why it was once such a scary event for those who didn’t understand what was happening. Thanks for the fun post.

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  19. This process is so amazing , we couldn’t see anything where we are but I was aware and sure did notice the effects in nature and energy. I have been so fascinated by space and its movements and stars my whole life . What great pictures and explanations and what a bonus you were able to see it.

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  20. Dear Thomas
    Your post brightened my sun in the Chhat Puja (worshipping the Sun God festival in North India, observed very meticulously & with great fervor) evening today.
    Thanks for liking my posts in last week during which period I didn’t thank you for liking my posts & thank you for liking my post today Daughter 2.0. 🌹♥️❤️🌹♥️❤️

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