When I close my eyes, I can still hear the cicadas.
The suddenness with which the shrill normally nocturnal insects blasted their chorus into the afternoon reminded me of a middle-school AV Tech missing their cue and attempting to make up for it by going from silence to speaker-shaking volumes all at once.
This was no normal August afternoon in sweltering Columbia, South Carolina during the summer of 2017. With what seemed like the flip of a switch, everywhere within 70 miles of where I stood was plunged into a darkness that no living beings in the Greater Southeastern United States had yet encountered.
The temperature dropped dramatically, the birds stopped their songs mid-verse, street lamps lining the nearby highway and the mall parking lot we had set up shop in flickered on, and for a brief moment in time – silence swept over the land. This hush felt more like a shock to the collective system of the planet, than a peaceful quiet calm.
It was as though all of nature didn’t have it in their database as to what any of us should do in such a moment…and that was before we witnessed what now dominated the sky and that which my brain still is trying to comprehend years later. Where the brilliant blazing summer sun shown down a blink of a moment before, there now hovered a massive black sphere with waving wisps of pure light emanating all around.
Every bit of doubt I once had about the impact that a Total Solar Eclipse could have had on human civilization was wiped away in that moment. This truly felt like something only a God could cause to happen.
Try as I might, there is no way that any amount of words or photos can truly convey what it is like to be in the Path of Totality for a Total Solar Eclipse. As technology has advanced, we’ve all seen truly stunning imagery from eclipses taken all over this planet (solar eclipses happen on average 4 to 5 times a year at various places across the globe), but media can’t touch those deep places inside of your soul and shake your understanding of how the world works. No matter how high the resolution of a photo or video is, there is no way to capture that wave of fear and exhilaration that comes from being able to stare in wide-eyed astonishment at that terrifying black ball and its tendrils of light standing where once our ever-present bright sun reigned just moments prior.
A Cosmic Coincidence
From all we as a species have gathered in our studies of the Universe, the solar eclipses we experience on our planet are a stunning bit of cosmic coincidence. Our sun is approximately 400 times the size of our moon, but at the same time the sun is approximately 400 times farther away from us than the moon is. No other planet in our solar system, or any other that we have observed, has a similar setup. It is this combination of factors that allows us to experience eclipses like we do – in fact, I believe that if the sizes or distances of either celestial body were different at all, our world and its history might be very different.
A Recent History of Eclipses in America
Wolfgang Strickling, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
As of early 2024, we Americans have actually gotten to witness a couple of eclipses over the past few years. In 2017, The Great American Eclipse became the first Total Solar Eclipse to traverse the breadth of the country since 1918, snuffing out the Sun in its entirety along a path from Oregon to South Carolina. In October of 2023, another solar eclipse occurred along a similar path in America, though this one took place while the moon was slightly further away from the Earth and caused what is known as an Annular (or Ring of Fire) Solar Eclipse. While I say that we Americans have gotten to witness these eclipses, how we’ve witnessed them has been wildly different depending on where you happened to be for the eclipses.
The Great American Total Eclipse of 2017 was truly only great if you found yourself within its path of totality, which ranged from 62 to 71 miles across. Despite crossing from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the path of totality managed to dodge all of the major cities outside of Kansas City, St. Louis, and Nashville (sorry Casper, Wyoming – I don’t consider you a major city). Unless you traveled to the Path of Totality, the moon only partially obscured the sun, requiring the use of special glasses to view the heavenly dance.
Dpickd1, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Unlike the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017, the Annular Solar Eclipse of 2023 required everyone to wear those eclipse glasses regardless of where they found themselves. Due to the moon being further away from us during an Annular Solar Eclipse, the entirety of the sun is not covered up and we are left with what is called a “Ring of Fire” around the moon. While this type of eclipse is indeed extremely cool in its own right, leading to some stunning photos, it has no way to produce the eerie and life-altering effects of witnessing a Total Solar Eclipse.
Which Brings Us to Today
On the afternoon of Monday April 8th, 2024, we Americans (and a large percentage of the population of Canada) once again are presented with the opportunity to witness a Total Solar Eclipse across our great land. Starting in Mexico around midday, the Eclipse and its Path of Totality will cover one of the most populous and fastest growing portions of the country – the corridor covering San Antonio, Austin, and the megapolis of Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas. From there the path continues to the Southeastern corner of Oklahoma, and most of Arkansas before laying down a trail of darkness across the Midwestern States of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana (including Indianapolis). As the Eclipse crosses the Eastern Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario, it will black out the sun over the major population centers surrounding Cleveland, Buffalo, Ontario, and the outskirts of the Canadian capital of Toronto before crossing back over the State of Maine on its way out to sea. All in all, the Path of Totality of this Eclipse in 2024 will travel directly over nearly 32 million people, compared to just 12 million in 2017.
Outside of that Path of Totality, this Eclipse will be like all others that you may have witnessed over your lifetime. The moon will partially block out the sun, and it will indeed be somewhat cool to observe while holding cardboard and solar foil covered glasses over face. While there may be an ever-so-slight dimming on the environment, and some strange shadows may appear on the ground under trees, it’s very possible that unless you are paying attention, you may not even notice that anything special is taking place. In fact, leading up to the Totality, those in its path will experience the same thing that the rest of the population is experiencing and will be required to wear eclipse glasses to observe the sky (I cannot stress the need for these glasses enough – they are cheap and readily available to order online). It is at that moment of Totality though that the world changes.
Plunged Into the Strangest Night
The collective hush that swept over the land lasted for but a brief moment of time – before giving way to a small bit of madness. While the songs of birds had ceased, after the pause caused by confusion, the creatures of the night came alive in a sudden and sustained crescendo of activity. Where we were in the deep and muggy South, the soundtrack of the night was cranked to full volume at 2:41 pm as the cicadas took their place after recovering from the unexpected appearance of twilight.
For a brief two and half minutes that both felt infinitely short and also stretched on into my forever, the strangest night I’ve ever encountered dominated the land. Everywhere along the Path of Totality, observers noted that daytime animals hunkered down, and nighttime creatures became active. What’s more is that with the covering of the normally punishing summer sun, the temperatures locally had plunged 11 degrees Fahrenheit (from 95º to 84º) over the course of the eclipse. Stepping back to my earlier comment about the clouds, it was reported that with the decreased solar radiation and temperatures lowering, the cumulus field of clouds that had become rather expansive in many areas about 1 to 2 hours before the eclipse, suddenly began to thin out right before and during totality.
Yet while all of this sounds like a normal night, just condensed down into a few minutes in the middle of the afternoon, there still remains that stunning black orb with waves of pure white light dancing about it. It is now, and only now, when the sun is completely covered in totality by the moon that it is safe to behold with your naked eyes – and what you will see will stay with you the rest of your life.
Michael S Adler, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It is this sight, visible only during these precious few moments that are worth traveling for. These few moments of time, as the moon blocks out the blazing face of the sun and its corona of light arcs out beyond it, are worth scheduling your life around. These few moments of time, which cannot truly be captured in written word or rendered image, are worth giving yourself the opportunity to be wowed.
I deeply hope that if do not find yourself within the Path of Totality during this Eclipse, that you do all that you can to prioritize doing so at some point in your life. I have witnessed some truly amazing things on this beautiful planet of ours, but none have rocked me in the way that this one did.