Me and Del Williams drove down to a state recreation area in Illinois called Sam Dale Lake last Monday, April 8th, 2024, to observe the sun being obscured by the moon. It was billed in the various media as “The Great American Eclipse,” because, yeah, it would be a good time to scavenge some bucks from the curious. We took the back way, left early, and experienced very little traffic. Sam Dale is in the middle of nowhere (other than during this rare occasion in the zone of totality), so we imagined we’d be far from the madding crowds whipped up by the advertising. We were more or less right. However, the campsites had been booked since January, and we were only able to snag one for the evening after the event.

The above panorama, taken as the moon had eaten about a half of the sun, slipping into the disc form the lower right, demonstrates how isolated we really were at Sam Dale.

Attempts to use an iPhone to register the event with mylar over the camera lens was unsuccessful…

I’d heard that shadows were a thing, so I snapped mine on the tarp we spread out for flat on the back viewing…

Here’s Del, wearing her eclipse glasses, taking it in…

I was jealous of the kyaker, floating out on the lake, his gaze heavenward…

I snapped a quick panorama again during the 3 minutes of totality, between spells of gawking at the spectacle of the sun’s corona, with visible prominences…

… an iPhone photo, no filter. Totality. Note the planets, visible now, in mid-afternoon…

… and as the light came back on …

As has been noted by many, there is no good way to capture and reproduce the experience of the total eclipse of the sun. Many of its effects make the hair stand up on the neck, even knowing what it is, and despite the hype. There is an abrupt chill. It is not at all like night. The pacing is not dramatic, and does not suit the modern mediated consciousness of humans. I noted that when the sun was at long last obscured, totally, with only its corona lighting the sky, those gathered applauded. They (we) had waited for an hour or so for this moment. The darkness came much more rapidly than the sedate progression of ordinary twilight on a cloudless evening. It was abrupt, accompanied by cool air and wind. When the sunlight reemerged, as abruptly as it had failed, there was another smattering of applause. But now the drama had gone out of the event and most people packed up and went home. The trio pictured above, two young women and an older man , stayed for the end. So did me and Del. We watched until the moon had at long last cleared the sun. We will not see anything like that again.