What awe feels like

Hi friends,

Aman and I were lucky enough to be near the Path of Totality for the solar eclipse yesterday (what an epic name). We almost didn’t bother driving out to see it, but upon watching this Ted Talk the day before, we were convinced to make the effort. A partial eclipse and a total eclipse are completely different experiences, as shown in this xkcd comic.

From first-hand experience, I can say you definitely owe if to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse at least once in your life. On average, they show up in any given place on Earth only once in 400 years, but if you’re willing to travel (as many umbraphiles do), you can see them about every 2 years. Here’s a list of the next ones.

No camera could fully capture the mindblowing, creepy, AWEsome experience of the total eclipse we saw yesterday. I can understand why people believed in great spirits and gods before astronomy was a thing. I tried my best to give a taste of the feeling below:

Right before the total eclipse, the temperature dropped and all light darkened as if we were placed under a filter. Streetlights turned on. Shadows on the ground looked like ghostly crescents. Suddenly, we were surrounded by 360 degrees of sunset across the horizon. In the field we were in, people all around us started gasping and shouting “OH MY GOD!” as the moon settled into the middle of the sun, creating what looked like a giant glowing black portal in the sky - ominous and otherworldly. Venus appeared like a bright star next to the sky portal, and Jupiter to the far left. For almost 3 minutes, we stared upwards in awe. I could not fully believe what I was seeing.

As suddenly as it appeared, the total eclipse ended. We quickly put on our eclipse glasses as the sunrays streamed through the moon’s shadow. The sky lightened and all was back to normal. It was like a dream - did that really just happen?

I am still feeling high and disoriented from yesterday’s experience. It is so rare to feel this way. For a brief moment, it seemed like all our Earthly concerns (the conflicts in the Middle East, housing shortages, US-China tensions, health challenges) were small and fleeting. We all came together to experience something beyond humanity - the all-encompassing, mysterious, powerful universe.

Aman and I are already talking about scheduling our future vacations around total eclipses. I guess we are umbraphiles now!

Did you also catch the eclipse? If so, what was your experience like?

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