Solar Eclipse
On April 8 2024, I buried my dad’s ashes in the morning, then witnessed the total solar eclipse in the afternoon. This blog entry includes several eclipse photos, but a more complete set of photos can be found in my eclipse gallery.
This story starts back in the 1940s when my mother was young. Friends of her family convinced my grandparents to vacation with them in a family camp called Eagle Camp located South Hero VT on the western shore of Grand Isle, one of the Champlain Islands north of Burlington. My mother’s family loved it, and returned year after year. My mother worked there as a waitress in the mid to late 1950s. According to my mom, her relationship with my dad would not have lasted had he not been equally enthusiastic. Camp has been a constant presence in our family’s life. My first year in camp was when I was 4. Moving around the country when I was growing up, camp was the one constant location that our family always returned to year after year. Kate visited camp before we were married. Our daughters started coming to camp when they were 5 and 4 respectively. The tent on the right in this 1983 photo was where my grandparents slept when I was young and eventually became my parents’ tent.
My parents have seen a number of total eclipses, so they were extremely excited when they realized that Eagle Camp would be directly under the center line for the 2024 total eclipse. It was quite a number of years ago that Dad first mentioned getting all of us together for this event. Sadly, in the spring of 2022, Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He passed away on July 4th of 2023. Having moved around so often during his adult life, it was his desire to have his ashes buried in the cemetery in South Hero, since Eagle Camp was the place that felt most like home for him. We decided that he would appreciate having his ashes buried on the day of the eclipse, then having his family watch the eclipse from Eagle Camp.
After our small ceremony at the South Hero cemetery, we arrived at camp around noon, several hours before the eclipse. Camp had arranged for a food truck to be present, which is where we had lunch. After lunch, I took a bit of time and wondered down to the lake.
Eventually, I made my way back up to the main lawn where people were gathering. I set up my camera to be able to take photos of the eclipse. Campers from many generations came. My mom reconnected with two people she had worked with over 65 years earlier. In the photo below, my mother is seated in the lower right with my brother walking towards her.
Here is a photo of the sun in the very early stages of the eclipse. Besides the portion of the sun blocked by the moon, several sunspots are clearly visible in the image. To take this photo or any photo of the partial eclipse, I needed to have an extremely dark solar filter. The one I used blocked about 99.998% of the light meaning that everything was completely black except for the sun.
As the eclipse started, I would take photos every few minutes. In this photo, perhaps half of the sun is now blocked. Because our eyes adapt so well to changing light, if I did not know that a partial eclipse was occurring, I never would have known from the change in light.
As the eclipse started to approach totality, I could notice it getting somewhat darker, but even with only this small sliver of the sun visible, it was still remarkably light. One certainly could not look at the sun without appropriate eye protection. More noticeable than the darkening light was the dropping temperature.
The moment when totality started was amazing. It was like someone flipped a switch and turned off the sun. While the moment before I needed solar glasses to look at the tiny sliver of sun still visible, now without glasses, I could look at the eclipse. Below the ring, Jupiter was visible. In all directions, the horizon looked like sun had just set.
Looking at the eclipse itself, I could see the solar flare at the bottom of the sun with my naked eye.
All too quickly, the four and a half minutes of totality passed. Because our eyes had adapted to the darkness, the moment that totality ended seemed even more dramatic than when it began. If you were looking at the sun, it was a blinding flash causing you to instantly blink and turn away.
As Kate and I were talking about the eclipse afterwards, we both can now understand why so many people chase eclipses. It was truly remarkable in a way that I struggle to describe. I cannot imagine what this experience would have been like for humans many centuries ago.