The Great American Total Solar Eclipse

William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, birding and nature photography blog documenting the beauty, design and wonder of God’s creation. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message

Total solar eclipse of the sun photo passing under cloud taken at 2:26 PM EST from Monroe, Georgia, USA

Monday, 2:26 PM - Today is the day. The climax of much media buildup. The Great American Total Eclipse will be visible here in Monroe, Georgia beginning at 1:07 PM, peaking at 2:38 PM, and ending at 4:02 PM.

​I’m glad there are a lot of people excited for once concerning something that doesn’t involve a video, screen or app. Many are getting outdoors with their dark glasses to observe a phenomenon of God’s creation.
 
We truly live in an ordered universe. The precise seconds of the eclipse are predicted through the clock-work accurate order of the universe. This very fact reveals a God of order, for no precise measurments could be made in a world created by random chance and evolution.

My first look through the viewing glasses was at 1:18 PM. Wow! You can actually see it. A small dark, rounded edge of the moon was passing over the upper right edge of the sun. I went in and out of my office repeatedly over the next several hours making sketches of the eclipse progress.
 
At approximately 2 PM, I could notice it getting a bit dimmer outside. By 2:20 it was noticeably dim, like wearing light sunglasses. And at the maximum, it was clearly much dimmer than normal. It was like late evening, but quite different. The long-shadows and ‘golden hour’ glow of evening were missing though it wasn’t as bright as midday.
 
I wasn’t planning any photographs because I had read a special solar filter was needed. But when a coworker took a somewhat successful shot with his iphone, and didn’t burn up its sensor, I decided to try. I set my camera on a tripod and put a polarizer on my 300mm lens.
 
Using live-view, I centered the sun in the frame and focused to infinity. With ISO set to 100, I choose a ridiculously fast shutter speed of 1/2000 seconds, and a tiny aperture of f/36. It worked. I was able to document the eclipse well enough and not burn up the sensor on my camera! Several shots looked like a detail-less banana on a black background. The most interesting shots were when the sun passed under the edge of a cloud. ​

​Walton County, Georgia, USA
Mostly sunny, high 91°; heat index 98°
Sunrise 6:59 AM; Sunset 8:12 PM
Day length: 13 hours, 18 minutes