Near Totality: Attempting to experience the Solar Eclipse from an airport | Adventure Every Day
The solar eclipse of August 21 was billed as the “Great American Eclipse”, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and drew tons of attention from the media. But was it overhyped?
I haven't been too active on Steemit lately (sorry folks, that'll change soon!) as I've been enjoying my summer holiday back home in the good ol' US of A.
What I didn't realize when I booked the trip, however, was that I chose to fly back to Norway on the exact day of the solar eclipse, almost at the exact time that totality was coming to the region I was flying from.
Once I got there, however, I couldn't avoid hearing about it, especially once the trip had me going through areas in the totality zone - the area where the sun is 100% blocked by the moon for a period of time. Like Nashville, Tennessee, for example, where the road signs even warned to plan ahead for the expected heavy traffic on eclipse day. How crazy was this actually going to be?
It wasn't until after I had arrived and checked in at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, just south of the totality zone, that the feeling of excitement hit me in its purest, nerdiest form.
Since my flight was due to take off right before totality streaked across Tennessee and northern Georgia, and my flight was heading north towards New York, I might reasonably get to see the whole thing from a unique perspective - above the clouds. And I already knew I had a window seat on the plane. Could my luck be so good, and would I have something great to share here on Steemit?
Long story short, the answer was no. My plane got delayed about a half hour, removing any chance of being above the clouds when it happened. This left me scrambling in the airport to find a window where I could see the sun. I had forgotten a bit just how high in the sky the sun gets in the South US (compared to here in Norway), and of course the concourse in the airport runs north-south, meaning that there are very few south-facing windows.
But the eclipse was still supposed to be about 95% in Atlanta, so there was still something to look for.
I quickly made my way to the very end of the concourse and found a south-facing window where a small crowd of enthusiasts had gathered. Good fortune struck here at least, as I was able to snatch an extra pair of eclipse glasses from someone there (shame on me for coming unprepared to an eclipse party).
At this point, the eclipse was underway, and, having done zero research on the topic as usual, I began playing with the camera to try to capture it. Here were some of the initial results:
I soon realized that I didn't have much time to make it back to the complete opposite end of the concourse to catch my flight. There was barely enough time to stop by a new set of windows I found to see it once more before boarding the plane.
Because of the cloud cover and how early it was in the eclipse, I still hadn't gotten to see too much, but it was time to get onboard. I doubted I'd be able to see anything from inside the plane, but to my pleasant surprise, it was possible to use the cameras to just barely capture a glimpse of it through the small plane window. I managed to get these shots as we taxied and the moon crossed over:
Not bad I suppose all things considered, but I sure wish I could've seen the path of totality from this view:
And, although it wasn't exactly a life-changing experience, it turns out that that's okay. After all, total eclipses aren't actually once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. In fact, one occurs about every 18 months somewhere in the world, and the next one to hit the US will be on April 8, 2024, so the chance will come again. I guess this one was just so hyped because it was the first trans-North America eclipse to occur for a very long time, and the first in the age of the internet.
If you aren't satisfied with these mediocre photos and want to see more cool eclipse stuff, here's a great 360 video from TIME that will take you there:
Did anyone else experience the solar eclipse? Tell me about it in the comments below!
And be sure to follow along as I return to my originally-planned programming soon, starting with the process of getting a Norwegian driver's license.
Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started in 2016. In addition to the Steemit blog, I post short films of my adventures to the Adventure Every Day YouTube channel.
Thanks for sharing! I was lucky and got to see it from my front porch in Knoxville sitting in the path of totality with totally clear skies. It really was amazing, although part of the memorability is just that my wife and I just bought this house, and also my parents drove down to watch with us.
Thats awesome man! I was hoping to be flying approximately over Knoxville during totality, seeing it burninate the countryside a bit haha. Wouldve been cool, glad you got to see it though! Sounds like you have a lot of good reasons to remember it!
Thanks for sharing! I got to see totality after putting it on my calendar seven years ago, since I knew this was probably the closest and cheapest it'll ever be for me. I've seen partials before, but now I get what everyone's talking about. Hopefully you can catch 100% on the next one! (And yes, from a plane would be wicked awesome)
That's awesome! I love that you put it on the calendar 7 years ago :) where did you see it from? You should post photos on here if you got anything good! Or just write about the experience.
I saw it from Madras, Oregon, which was insanely crowded haha. I just did a full write-up, you can check it out here: https://steemit.com/eclipse/@therovingreader/eclipsed-fulfilling-my-dream-of-totality-story-video
Great! I'll check it out right now. Is your calendar marked for April 2024 yet!?
I made my parents mark their calendar with it! It'll probably be a bit far for me.
Now that you are an enthusiast you will make the trip im sure :)
Beautiful , i like
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