Pursuing the Total Eclipse
August 23, 2017
My husband and I headed down to Dover, TN on Sunday to watch the total eclipse. He had picked this location for its proximity to Ft. Donelson, as he is a Civil War buff, in addition to it being in the path of totality. I was anticipating a short drive down to the national battlefield to spend the day in relative comfort with indoor plumbing.
About 2 weeks before we left, he said, “By the way, if we just go a little further north to the Land Between the Lakes, we can experience one more minute of totality”.
So I agreed to brave the traffic for that one extra minute, leaving our hotel a little before 6:30 (and without breakfast) to head out to the Land Between the Lakes to view the eclipse. The early hour paid off, as there were few other vehicles on the road at that time of the morning.
One eclipse experience in a location far from us
Once we arrived, we found a parking place at the Nature Station. It was 7:30 a.m. Steve suggested we go on a “reconnaissance” hike to find the best viewing spot, then come back for breakfast. He had done the research, so I followed him into the woods along a trail in search of the ideal eclipse watching spot. And we found it, 45 minutes later - a small dam between Honker Lake and Honker Bay that stretched about a quarter mile across. We could walk on it, set up our chairs, and settle in to watch. It was near shade, so we could obtain some respite from the 98 degree heat. And Steve agreed to hike back and get food and more water.
Not many people were willing to brave the trail and the heat, so we shared the space with only about 15 others. Our fellow eclipse-viewers were from Canada, Florida, and Australia.
We put on our viewing glasses at 11:55 CDT to watch the moon begin to obscure a small piece of the sun - the upper right hand corner - from west to east. Over approximately the next 1 ½ hours, the moon traveled slowly across the surface. If we watched carefully, we could see rays of sun peak between the mountains and craters of the moon. I had expected dusk to settle in sooner, but even at the point where the sun was merely a crescent, it was still a bright, sunny day.
I ran back to the shade to see if I could view the image of the eclipse in the dappling from the leaves. Indeed, I could see multiple images on the ground in the bright spots between the leaves. A much-appreciated breeze blew up, as it often does just ahead of dusk.
And then, at 1:23 pm CDT, the sun disappeared from view through my eclipse glasses. I flung them to the ground to observe totality. The corona was a bright, white ring around blackness. The breeze stilled. The katydids quit buzzing. Barely discernible jets of sunlight moved around the perimeter of the moon’s shadow. Rays of light shot out from the corona. I looked around, and could watch a 360 sunset - one of the reasons we wanted to be where we could see the horizon as well. The pink glow completely surrounded us. It did not get completely dark, more a deep dusk.
The moon, which had been so slow to work its way across the sun, moved much too quickly away. The first moment when the sun peeks through, a brilliant light shoots out. I had heard of the diamond ring effect, and that is exactly what it looks like - a bright band with a bead, or diamond, of brilliant light at the lower right hand corner. That small bead of light was so bright, our surroundings appeared to be illuminated by a spotlight, much like being under the lights at a night football game. I scrambled to locate my eclipse glasses as it became too bright to watch without them.
The moon continued its journey; more of the sun appeared. The pink sky turned to blue, the katydids resumed their buzzing. Dusk turned to day in a matter of minutes.
It is as amazing as it has been described in the news accounts - an astounding, beautiful, rare event - well worth the heat, the hike, the sweat, and no breakfast or lunch.
We stayed a bit longer, watching the moon move away from the sun, then packed up and hiked the long, and now even hotter, trail back to the car, air-conditioning, cold water and food.
And we began to plan our trip to watch the next total eclipse, in 2024. Wooster will be close, if not in, the band of totality. We plan to be there to celebrate with you.
Dover TN - Ft Donelson
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