I work about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia. We were not in the path of totality. But around 2:45 yesterday, it was pre-thunderstorm level gloomy outside, despite the air being light and dry for an August afternoon. It was 5 degrees cooler than it would be when I left work at 6:00. And when the timing was just right, a humble, unfiltered cell phone camera could catch a glimpse of the crescent-moon shaped sun, dimmed to visibility by passing clouds.
The mood outside the corporate center was festive. About 30 people from all levels of the company were taking turns with 8 pairs of solar viewing glasses, a cereal box turned pinhole viewer, and a knit cardigan. Okay, so the lady who used her cardigan in place of approved viewing devices got yelled at by her friends. But you could argue that itâs the same concept as the clouds cutting down the glare!
My phone wasnât the only one to capture that blue crescent on brighter pictures. Compared to the âcrescent sun,â it was always inverted. Was it a real phenomenon, hypothetically visible but too close to a bright sun for direct viewing, and too dim to spot through solar glasses? Or was it just an artifact of our camerasâ lenses? Who knows? Maybe the science side of Tumblr?
I kept a real-time online simulation of the eclipse at our location running on my work computerâs second monitor until it ended at 4:00. At 3:58, my spotify decided to play âClosing Timeâ by Semisonic. Which felt fitting- and strangely sad.
