We had a total temperature drop of 2 degrees. Some change in sunlight but nothing big. Birds did go pretty much silent for a time.
Solid overcast here. campinspecter was out mowing Mom's yard when it started to get dark. His first thought was "It is going to rain!" I notice a definite darkening of the skies from my office. We were in the 85% range.
Well, Firebroad is spot on, we got a helluva show here in South Carolina! My pictures sucked too but it's an experience we won't soon forget. Darkened to twilight, and we had a 360 degree sunset! How often do you get two sunrises/sunsets in one day?
I loaded some Osage Orange east of Mayetta, that I had cut last fall, we then drove straight north. With the cloud cover we only had brief glimpses before and after totality. There was complete cloud cover during totality. I think the second picture is most impressive picture I got, taken at 1:06. Very cool. I am glad we went up.
I was in the 75% range and thought that it would have gotten darker than it did. It has been darker during heavy clouded storm clouds.
It got dark-er here (but not dark) about 14:00 EDT and you could tell the sun was a lot less intense (this is SC after all ) up until about 5 minutes before totality. Then it just got dimmer until a sudden lights out.
So I have 20+ cords of firewood that has now been seasoned under an eclipsed sun...it's gotta be worth what, like $500/cord now, right?
I knew pics were going to be difficult with only 75% blackout so I thought I'd try video instead. I'm using the same camera I had at the GTG at cwn877 place. I took the shield out of my welding mask and laid it over the camera lens; which was pointing almost straight up. It was partly cloudy which made it tough to get a consistent exposure. The original file is 35:00 but I trimmed it down to just over 4:00. There are a few places where you can really see it well but some of it is overexposed and some is obscured by the clouds. I even took the shield off at one point where the clouds were thick. Well worth the time spent watching it!
