We all have eclipse hangovers here at Sol—feeling a little fuzzy and dizzy from the amazing spectacle in the sky yesterday. In order to continue the ecliptical experience, we thought we’d share our stories with you here on our blog!
Who: Mary, Adam and Marius
Where: Rooftop Bar at The Republic
Totality: 99.93%
In Mary’s words
Adam headed up the rooftop bar around 2pm to grab us a prime viewing spot. Marius and I joined him a couple minutes later with our laptops thinking we would be super productive during the eclipse! There was a group of some lovely young folks – I can say that now that I am in my 40’s 🙂 – who were there with their glasses (beer glasses and viewing glasses). We all marveled at the light shifting and the chipper moon. Adam, being the responsible one, had eclipse glasses that he shared with me and Marius. I wasn’t expecting much but when I peered into those crazy glasses it really was magical. It was like watching the moon and sun dancing and smiling. Then there was the light. It was the perfect light for a photoshoot and also for catching shadows.
It was eerily beautiful. There were a lot of “ooohhhs” and “ahhhs” and quite a few cocktails consumed. I think we all agreed that next time we are going to go for 100% totality, but for our first time, a rooftop bar and delicious drinks with some of my favorite folks was TOTAL eclipse awesomeness.
In Marius’s words
Mary and I were lucky enough to bum glasses off of Adam, and thank God, because we didn’t want to stare directly at the eclipse in fear that it might get nervous and mess up. Considering that the eclipse transpires only once-in-a-lifetime, I’m happy that I witnessed the spectacle in good company and with keen spirited folk. Everyone was super excited, and in contrast, calmed by the climatic shade cast over the usually very hot and damn-near unbearable Atlanta afternoon. The moments leading up to and following the eclipse were doused with good beer and great conversation on Republic’s rooftop bar. What can I say? This event served as a reminder that phenomenons happen—big and small, it just depends on how you look at them!
Who: Shannon
Where: Decatur, GA
Totality: 99ish%
After flying home to Atlanta from San Francisco with a nearly-9-month-old baby the day before, everything on Monday felt surreal. My husband and I were putting our daughter down for a nap when he looked at the clock and realized the eclipse was about to begin. Thirty-ish minutes and a sleeping baby later, we were outside our house with a friend taking in the sight. It was way more amazing than I expected! The most surreal moment of all, however, was that at the EXACT moment of totality, our daughter woke up from her nap, cried out, and then fell back asleep.
Who: Jake
Where: Lake Hartwell, GA/SC
Totality: 100%
A friend of mine from college came to visit from Boston. We were going to go to Clemson University, where campus-wide activities were organized—but at the last minute, my mom got us invited to one of her former student’s parents’ lake house in the totality zone. We left Atlanta at 6AM, which was entirely unnecessary as traffic didn’t really start until everyone left to go home, but we stopped at a diner and walked around “downtown” Lavonia on the way up, and had dinner in Athens on the way back to wait out the traffic, which didn’t get any better.
This would be a really great photo if I hadn’t spilt beer all over myself just moments prior, as I looked up at the sun through my eclipse binoculars—worth every penny of the $33.87 even though I won’t use them for another 7 years. (We’re already planning where to view the 2024 eclipse. My vote is for Rochester.)
Who: Kathie
Where: Helen, GA
Totality: 100%
I saw the eclipse somewhere between Helen, GA and Yonah with some good friends of mine. We’d originally planned on driving to Clayton, GA but we made the decision to spend the night at Jeju Sauna and Spa in Duluth and didn’t sleep until 6:00AM, which was an hour before we’d intended on leaving to beat the traffic. After leaving the spa, we found our way into a Super H-Mart for ice and managed to spend another hour wandering around the store, and then went to a nearby bakery for coffee before finally getting on the road. At this point, driving to Clayton had begun to sound like a scenario in which we would be scrambling from the car to watch the eclipse on the road, so we decided to go to Helen instead. To get away from the crowds, we drove a little farther past Helen to find a secluded stretch of land and eventually set up a picnic under a big tree and just watched from there.
Who: Jennifer
Where: Near Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas
Totality: 75% (maybe)
My son took this selfie before we were eclipsed near DFW airport. I was getting ready to fly out to ATL and, in hindsight, should have booked an earlier flight to catch the eclipse with my colleagues. Sadly, in Dallas we were too far away from the path of totality to see anything (although my mom swears the sky looked different). I guess I’ll have to wait until 2024, when the next total solar eclipse will cross through Texas.
Who: Troy
Where: Helen, GA
Totality: 100%
Like Kathie, I, too made the mistake of grossly underestimating the level of interest of those who have shown no interest in science whatsoever since June 8, 1918 would display in this particular scientific phenomenon. Like the chain wallet-wearing guy who decided to flask during a Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture I paid $125 to attend last year. My seat was in the back row, all the way to the right of the upper balcony of the Fox Theater. And, of course, Mr. Chainwallet was seated one row in front of me until he was eventually removed from the premises for being drunk and disorderly. Anyway, my point is, there were a lot of Mr. Chainwallets with some serious #FOMO heading into the path of totality to take a selfie yesterday. But I digress…
So the whole “fan damily” and I waited until around 11:00 am on the morning of to begin our trek to Clayton, GA, in the dead center of the path of 100% totality.
Also like Kathie, when we realized at around 1:00PM, that we were still 2.5 hours away from Clayton, we decided to head for Helen so that we wouldn’t be one of those vehicles stopped on the middle of the interstate watching the eclipse from the roof of our car.
Much to our chagrin, this new idea was also not an original one. As we made our way closer to the base of the Yonah Mountain Trailhead, we started seeing cars parked along both sides of each street, beginning nearly 2 miles back.
Long overdue for a bit of luck, I kept driving all the way to the trailhead entrance, only to find the closest available parking space directly beside the entrance still available. But after only a brief moment of celebration, reality once again set in as we noticed the tens of thousands of people (whom all of those cars we had just passed belonged to) all lined up along the top of the summit, already wearing their glasses preparing for the eclipse which had already started.
Not wanting to have to share this experience with that number of people, and out of fear that we wouldn’t reach the summit in time, we hiked up the trail a short bit, until we found the first big opening in the canopy, through which the sun could be perfectly viewed. We set up camp there with the pups, and began crushing tiny beers, awaiting totality.
We managed to get a few pretty decent shots of the crescent shaped shadows I’ve heard many people talking about today, but that I think were exacerbated by all the shadows coming through the trees in the deep woods of the trail.
About 30 minutes before totality, crickets began chirping, and at about 15 minutes ‘til, owls started hooting. By the time totality came, it may as well have been midnight. In the deepness of the woods, intentionally surrounded by no one, it was utterly creepy, and exhilarating, and mystical. And our dogs totally freaked out.
Who: Scott
Where: Stone Mountain, GA
Totality: No Idea — 99% and change
I was with Poppie (our dog) in the yard as the eclipse came to revelation. As a former space camp nerd, I was a little blown away for not really giving a sh*t ahead of time. Fortunately, a neighbor had glasses or I would have had no comment for this blog post. In retrospect, I’m glad I experienced it — as the hip French kids say, it was “supercool.”
I was the only one interested in the household though. Poppers dug a hole. The cat slept.
