> I took the photo below less than one minute before totality in 2019, when the sun was reduced to a mere sliver in the sky, and in the photo it's still... well, kind of sunny.
When I saw the 2017 eclipse, I noticed that the Sun was quite dim about 15 minutes before and after totality that that photo doesn't quite capture. It was like the dying embers of a fire, except the light was yellowish instead of red-orange.
That's what was most surprising to me. You're used to seeing it get dark at night every night... but it gets orange before it gets dark. With an eclipse, it doesn't get orange. In 2017 my brain's auto-white-balance function had a lot of trouble with this and everything looked strangely blue. I was also surprised by the temperature drop and stillness.
This time, it looks like it's going to be cloudy. I have no idea what to expect.
Agree, and yet I regret even bothering to take a photo of the last eclipse.
If you had a camera set up pointed at the sun, automatically snapping photos every so many seconds — go for it. You can forget abut the camera and enjoy the event.
That's interesting. I took a lot of pictures in 2017, which was my first total eclipse, and don't regret it all. I kind of had a vision in mind for the picture and it came out perfect. (Looking through a telephoto lens at the sun is probably the least interesting picture. I took a wide shot with the corona clearly visible and the rest of the scenery and the eclipsegoers on the ground. I'd like to get 4 minutes worth of star trails sometime, but I'm too lazy to bring my tripod this year. Maybe next time. It's going to be cloudy anyway.)
When I saw the 2017 eclipse, I noticed that the Sun was quite dim about 15 minutes before and after totality that that photo doesn't quite capture. It was like the dying embers of a fire, except the light was yellowish instead of red-orange.