Total Solar Eclipse
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Total Solar Eclipse
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture
Description
During the initial parts of the total solar eclipse I saw in 1991, the sun began getting dimmer and dimmer. At that time, the solar corona or atmosphere wasn't visible. As the event progressed, prominences became visible at the sun's magnetic poles and finally, ever so gradually, the corona began to appear as you see in this image.
I was on an 'eclipse tour' out of Mazatlan, Mexico and were brought to a place called the "Beach of the Goats" which was about the only clear spot for miles within the umbra part of the moon's shadow. The bus drivers pulled up to the beach and everybody piled out. I don't speak much Spanish, but I could hear the words "Gringo" and "Loco" all used in the same sentence.
Once totality was full, things started getting weird. There were some chickens and pigs in various pens nearby and as the darkness finally peaked, I could hear the rooster crowing and the pigs oinking in distress as I interpreted it.
We had with us a television meteorologist out of Tulsa, Oklahoma and he was going on and on about what to watch for during the event. He swore up and down that it might actually start to rain and at the very least there would probably be some increase in the cloud cover and if we were really lucky, some lightning. OK, I will admit. I did see some flashes. However, it wasn't until weeks later that I sat up in bed one night laughing my tail feathers off. My wife asked me what was going on and I reminded her of the meteorologist and how he had predicted lightning. I asked her if she saw any flashes too. She allowed as to how she though she did and maybe he was right.
Then I asked her if she remembered seeing two little old ladies on the beach taking pictures with instamatics and flash cubes. Then I turned over and went back to sleep...
The original 35mm Kodachrome II transparency was digitized for uploading. This image copyright 2014 Jon Burch Photography.
Uploaded
May 20th, 2014
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