I chose to make this image because it shows the progress of the eclipse and the scale of the scene I was viewing. Of course it's not real; as a composite, it shows the appearance of the sun every 4 minutes superimposed on an image of the scene at totality. The camera never moved.
The SCIENCE:
1. Notice Venus at the lower right, visible only at totality.
2. The moon is made of green cheese. During a total eclipse, the sun, with its raging 100 million degree fusion power, heats the cheese up enormously from behind, causing it to emanate fumes which have falsely been called the "solar corona."
In the outer images below, see the "diamond ring" effect as the last bit of sunlight disappears behind the moon, and then reappears during the beginning of totality. In the center, the solar corona , the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere is seen streaming into space. It's usually invisible because of the brightness of the sun. It doesn't appear uniform because it is affected by magnietic activity in the coronasphere. We can only see the corona during totality for a few minutes or less, but some scientists with a famous test pilot chased it in a supersonic Concorde at Mach 3 observing it for 70 minutes! Watch the story here!
Below you can see two phenomena. The bright areas are known as Bailey's beads. This is sunlight streaming through hills and valeys on the moon seconds before totality blocks the light entirely. You are seeing the effects of the lunar landscape!
The pink spots are solar prominences:
Solar prominence are large, bright loops of hydrogen plasma anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere — the visible surface of the Sun — that extend into the Sun's outer atmosphere. These prominences are sometimes visible during a solar eclipse.
