Personal Impressions of the Solar Eclipse - Frances Dellutri, Enterprise In Space

Personal Impressions of the Solar Eclipse - Frances Dellutri, Enterprise In Space

by Bonnie A Thurber -
Number of replies: 0


My husband and I located to Frontenac, MO a suburb to the southwest of St. Louis on August 21. It is true that the bright red blaze around the moon and a hazy blue corona as well as the temperature decrease and wind speed increase during totality were all spectacular, but there were some interesting experiences we did not anticipate. The day was quite warm at 90 degrees and very high humidity.  At totality we felt the humidity drop considerably - I had no instruments to take a reading- and a feeling reminiscent of a cool dusk. We waved our arms up and down as they somehow felt lighter, maybe because of the lower humidity.  After the eclipse we both felt a marked calmness that lasted for about an hour. I even felt a bit under-whelmed at the time.  It could have been the bliss after the excitement of anticipation and then witnessing our first total eclipse. My calmness or perhaps letdown then took a turn after the hour and I had to call everyone I could to absolutely exclaim to them about every moment that I had mentally processed!   This was such a truly amazing experience.  The next day when I returned to school my colleagues who had not taken the day off were so happy for me to have taken advantage of the opportunity and were all grins, shaking heads, and giggles as I recounted my journey to totality. Without fail they each vowed to take advantage of a solar eclipse at their first opportunity!  Wow!20170821_132736.jpg