Eclipse Thrills Vermonters As Skies Cooperate For The Spectacle

 That. Was. Awesome.   

The view from my St. Albans, Vermont house during today's
total eclipse of the sum. The light in the distance is far
to our northwest, just outside the path of totality. 

Throngs of people watched gobsmacked as the total eclipse of the sun passed over northern Vermont. My husband and I were two of those gobsmacked people. 

Video of the experience is at the bottom of this post.   

Judging from news reports, large parts of the eclipse path had fewer clouds than many expected, which is definitely nice. The more people who could participate the better, as far as I'm concerned. 

As my husband and I settled into our  chairs on the back deck, our silly looking eclipse glasses on, we quickly discovered -  much to our delight - that the high clouds that had moved in did not mess with the spectacle at all. 

 Through the eclipse glasses, one could clearly see the moon eating up the sun. At totality, the edges of the sun could clearly be seen the darkness peeking out through the edges of the moon's shadow. 

The broken wisps of thin clouds actually seemed to enhance the show.  Before and during most of the time the sun slowly disappeared, the high clouds created a ring around the sun. That's typical when there's a veil of cirrus overhead. . As the sun slowly slipped behind the moon, the ring seemed to expand, and the orange color in the ring became dominant.

The sunlight slowly faded into a sort of sick orange yellow. Daffodil plants poking out of the ground turned a strange sort of unnatural dark green.   The blue sky to the northeast was a deeper, darker blue than I've ever seen in the sky. 

As the light dimmed here in St. Albans, Vermont, birds made their evening calls. Two hawks circled overhead for some reason. A few crows, part of a large murder of them that roost nightly up on the hill behind our house, seemed confused and flew low and slowly and cautiously just above the shed. 

Mosquitoes also came out. 

We live on a southwest facing hill in St. Albans, Vermont, so the view was perfect. Just before totality, a band of blue skies to the southwest suddenly turned black, making it look as if a storm was approaching. 

At the moment we plunged into darkness we could hear a cheer go up in Taylor Park, a little over a mile away, from the throng that had gathered there. Streetlights blinked on.  I could see somebody's flashlight  at a neighbor's house. 

During totality we could see the zone outside the total eclipse far to the west. The high clouds there took on sunset colors. 

Four minutes before totality in St. Albans, Vermont,
the ring around the sun created by the high clouds
became more noticeable, and seemed to expand. 

It seemed like a frozen moment during totality. Everything grew quiet after that initial cheer from the park. There were no cars on the road. 

 The woods, the yard everything was silent. Even Jackson the Weather Dog, who was constantly seeking our attention as the light faded, grew quiet and lay down quietly by our feet in the sudden darkness.  

Just before totality ended, the sky that had turned black to the southwest turned blue again, and that blue sky, flecked with those high clouds, raced northeastward toward us. 

In the moment the sun emerged, there was just a tiny, but brilliant bright spot - the famous diamond ring effect.  (I think a cloud partly obscured that feature as we went into totality. 

As the light returned, I heard a couple robins make that happy chirp they usually make at dawn. The slight breeze that went calm during the eclipse returned. 

The temperature outside the house dropped from 59 degrees a few minutes before the moon's shadow started to cross the sun at around 2:15 to 47 degrees just after the sun re-emerged. That's a 12 degree drop. I think I was right. The humidity today was very low, and that allowed the temperature to fluctuate a lotl

By 5:15 p.m. the temperature was back up to 58 degrees. 

I so hope everyone in the path of the eclipse had as wonderful an experience as my husband and I did.  It was a once and a life time experience, and I'm so lucky I spent it alone with the person I love the most 

And of course our unimpressed Jackson the Weather Dog. 

Video:  What it looked like from my house in St. Albans, Vermont. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.