The day started out like any other, but it was a once in a lifetime kind of day. At about 2pm in the Akron, OH area, the solar eclipse began. At first, it was barely noticeable with eclipse glasses. But quickly we got to see more and more of the moon covering the sun. Closer to 3pm the light changed. It was like the color was turning gray like a weird twilight. The temperature dropped about 4 degrees and the wind quieted from about 4mph to .5.

Suddenly, the sun was covered and it was almost like night. Looking around the horizon we could see what looked like sunrise all around. We could see some stars and the sky was a beautiful dark blue. We took so many photos, but none of them really truly captured the environment. Even the eclipsed sun refused to have a photo taken that reflected what we saw with our eyes.

As the moon started to move out of the way the darkness went away quickly as well. It’s amazing how a small sliver of the sun lights up the earth. One of our neighbor’s roosters started crowing like it was morning, and everything started to return to normal. The light was still weird for a little while afterwards though.

I realize that there a billion photos of the eclipse out there, but this was the first one we saw as images were processed. We thought it was amazing, and I love the “diamond ring” effect. You can also see the prominence on the right side of the sun in this photo, although the red light at the bottom is drowned out by the emerging sunlight.

Main photo by Jon. Text and landscape photo by Doug.

Canon R10, RF 100-400mm, f8, 1/200sec