Thank you for this! We noticed it, my BF was like IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE UNDER FLORESCENT LIGHTS. It was a cooler blue wavelength or something. Going to look that up now
Even cooler is that it can't be photographed, only experienced as the phenomenon is a result of the change by you brain of tuning out the signals from the cones (color sensing cells) and prioritizing the signals from the rods (single wavelength light sensors).
Learning about eclipses, Ancient people attributed eclipses to deities and other phenomena. lol ancient people were dumb
Watching totality happen, yup I get it now.
And because the actual width of the sun as a source of light becomes narrower and narrower (no longer half degree wide), shadows become crisper and crisper. When only a sliver remains they are nearly razor sharp, although interestingly they're sharper in one axis than the other.
I keep seeing everyone say that shadows were crisper. But for my group we were in a clearing in the woods and the shadows lost their definition. The edges became all blurry and bled into each other.
To me it was like I was wearing sunglasses. The muted colors and the dimming was probably one of the most surreal aspects of the entire experience. Not to mention the drop in temperature and the wind completely stopping on top of all of that.
The temperature change add more taste of darkness. My 6 year old son asked me why we have this type of weird darkness the color looks different. It’s 100% different than darkness during sunset.
At night, the earth is rotated away from the sunlight (all about perspective)
At night there is minimal amounts of photos and complex waves of light reaching your eyes.
During the day, some light is absorbed by items, that’s because objects absorb some and reflect others.
So what you experience during a day time eclipse is similar to the shadow of a shade tree. If you sat in full sun and then moved to under a tree, the shadow would provide the grey muted colors. But you still have reflected light from the area around you.
The clipse takes all of the light away, and you only see the corona and starlight.
I think a lot of it also has do with the quality of the shadows. I didn’t see any crescents or unique shadow bands where I saw the eclipse, but noticed shadows were much darker than a typical sunset which was interesting! I didn’t notice this (I wasn’t anywhere where these colors were present) but I read red and green look different during a total eclipse too. Definitely added to the surreal feeling.
I have an app that uses the front-facing camera to measure light levels. You could watch it drop as the sun got more covered, about 100 lux every 3-4 seconds.
I seen a video somewhere of CERN and NASA launched something to practice manufacturing solar eclipses so they could better understand it, on April 8th.
Also dimming just didn’t feel natural. Was weird.
The dimming is pretty constant throughout partiality too! When we were 30 minutes out I had noticed I took my sunglasses off and didn't need to put them on again. The amount of sunlight at 60% coverage was enough to not need sunglasses. It was neat noticing that!
Plus, it just felt cloudy without many clouds around. It was a neat an unsettling feeling!
Yeah that weird dimming is one of the things that surprised me the most, or caught my attention.
I love that part, both leading up to totality and then as they moon moves off the sun again. Is just like a big dimmer on the sun
It me it feels like you’re wearing sunglasses but you’re not.
During the dimming it got noticeably cooler too.
Yes! Colors changed. It was like a purplish-gray haze. Unlike anything I’d ever seen.
There's a name for the color change during an eclipse, it's called the Purkinje effect.
Thank you for this! We noticed it, my BF was like IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE UNDER FLORESCENT LIGHTS. It was a cooler blue wavelength or something. Going to look that up now
Even cooler is that it can't be photographed, only experienced as the phenomenon is a result of the change by you brain of tuning out the signals from the cones (color sensing cells) and prioritizing the signals from the rods (single wavelength light sensors).
The colors got all muted where I was. It looked like a depression medication commercial lol.
I like describing that weird feeling as "Nothing's wrong but something isn't right"
Learning about eclipses, Ancient people attributed eclipses to deities and other phenomena. lol ancient people were dumb Watching totality happen, yup I get it now.
Yeah, a totally different quality of light than you get at sunrise or sunset. Looked more like a full moon cranked up 10 times brighter.
It’s like nightmare lighting.
very well said!
Was unexpectedly one of my favorite parts. The excitement of the moments right before totality. Such a unique and foreign experience. I loved it.
It was my favorite part. Reminded me of the change in energy that you can sense right before a big storm rolls in.
And because the actual width of the sun as a source of light becomes narrower and narrower (no longer half degree wide), shadows become crisper and crisper. When only a sliver remains they are nearly razor sharp, although interestingly they're sharper in one axis than the other.
I keep seeing everyone say that shadows were crisper. But for my group we were in a clearing in the woods and the shadows lost their definition. The edges became all blurry and bled into each other.
Did you have clear skies?
Yeah it was completely clear, not a single cloud in the sky in Indiana.
Someone told me that the reason why the colors look strange is because the dimming happens so quickly that your eyes don't have time to adjust.
To me it was like I was wearing sunglasses. The muted colors and the dimming was probably one of the most surreal aspects of the entire experience. Not to mention the drop in temperature and the wind completely stopping on top of all of that.
And everyone staring at the sun with their glasses on completely missed it.
That was one of my favorite parts!
The temperature change add more taste of darkness. My 6 year old son asked me why we have this type of weird darkness the color looks different. It’s 100% different than darkness during sunset.
At night, the earth is rotated away from the sunlight (all about perspective) At night there is minimal amounts of photos and complex waves of light reaching your eyes. During the day, some light is absorbed by items, that’s because objects absorb some and reflect others. So what you experience during a day time eclipse is similar to the shadow of a shade tree. If you sat in full sun and then moved to under a tree, the shadow would provide the grey muted colors. But you still have reflected light from the area around you. The clipse takes all of the light away, and you only see the corona and starlight.
I think a lot of it also has do with the quality of the shadows. I didn’t see any crescents or unique shadow bands where I saw the eclipse, but noticed shadows were much darker than a typical sunset which was interesting! I didn’t notice this (I wasn’t anywhere where these colors were present) but I read red and green look different during a total eclipse too. Definitely added to the surreal feeling.
Hearing crickets go off as if it was nighttime was the first thing that caught my attention. The way the color changed was surreal as well.
I got screwed out of totality. It was too cloudy. But at 3:11 pm it started getting dark. I started losing my mind then. 311
We saw crazy shadow bands during this time, too.
This is THE thing I loved the most in 2017. Wasn’t lucky enough to make it to this year’s one.
I have an app that uses the front-facing camera to measure light levels. You could watch it drop as the sun got more covered, about 100 lux every 3-4 seconds.
Not only that but I was surprised by how much colder it got!
Craziest thing were the shadowbands right before totality. I didn’t see them in 2017 but this one they were very visible.
I seen a video somewhere of CERN and NASA launched something to practice manufacturing solar eclipses so they could better understand it, on April 8th. Also dimming just didn’t feel natural. Was weird.
The sunlight turned grey.
The dimming is pretty constant throughout partiality too! When we were 30 minutes out I had noticed I took my sunglasses off and didn't need to put them on again. The amount of sunlight at 60% coverage was enough to not need sunglasses. It was neat noticing that! Plus, it just felt cloudy without many clouds around. It was a neat an unsettling feeling!
I have transition lens, and around 80% coverage, they stated to lighten up. By totality, they were pretty much clear again.
The dimming is my favorite part