It was nothing short of magical and wondrous. The air, the atmosphere felt almost electric as totality neared. Even though we were only about 99% or so in our area, we were a few miles short of 100% darkness so no stars for us.
Here, in my little neck of Idaho, we started at 68 degrees but felt like 76. It was a tad warm. The flies were annoying buggers, saw a dragon fly, and had bunch of little butterfly-moth like creatures flying all around. The neighbor's chicken(s) were making noise until about 3/4 of totality. The Juncos and Sparrows were chatty until about 50% to totality. At almost peak, a Hawk took off from the tree right next to the house and flew about 10 -20 feet (maybe? bad with estimating that sorta thing) right over our heads and house. And a lone Magpie chatter across the road through it. By the time we hit total eclipse, it felt like it was 60 degrees if not a little cooler.
The light, was nothing I could capture on film or put to words. I felt like some one dropped a filter over the sun. It wasn't dark, it wasn't quite dusk or twilight either. I thought things looks like a dusky blue-ish purple. Even the shadow looked different, almost crisper.
I didn't have the proper equipment to take photos. I used my eclipse glasses over my lens on my Nikon CoolPix and on my tablet to try and take a couple of pictures. With the camera, I think they still starburst. I haven't uploaded them yet.
Maybe it's all in my head, maybe it's my imagination...but it feels different.
Hope you all enjoyed the eclipse today. Wishing you New Moon Blessings!
