For months we had been planning travel routes, buying equipment, and researching photography methods for the eclipse. Now it looked like we would be clouded out!
Several days before the eclipse, Dad and I flew into Houston to spend time with family in Beaumont. Then we drove up to Rockwall with my uncle.
According to everything I had seen, Texas was supposed to be the best place to watch the eclipse, but when I got up and looked out the window on Monday morning, it did not look very hopeful. Dark, threatening clouds filled the sky, with no signs of clearing anytime soon. We kept hoping and praying for clear skies. Around noon, we set up the camera and chairs in the hotel parking lot and ate lunch as we awaited the “first bite” in the sun.
At 12:24 p.m., the moon started making its way across the sun. Every few minutes for the next hour, the sun peeked through the slowly thinning clouds and gave us a glimpse of the moon slowly nibbling on it. I had planned to use an intervalometer to fire the camera every five minutes, but, because of the clouds, I had to shoot whenever the sun was visible.
Then, at about 1:30, God answered our prayers. A large window of blue sky opened right around the sun, as if someone pulled the clouds apart. At 1:41 came the moment we had been looking forward to for so long—four minutes of night in the middle of the day—totality.
The sky became dark, the temperature dropped at least ten degrees, and a few bright stars were visible. What we could see of the horizon was ringed in a sunset-like orange light. Looking straight at the sun for the first time, we could see the solar corona around a black disk where the sun was shining brightly just moments before. My dad and uncle got to see it through binoculars, but by the time my turn came, it was too bright to look at.
When the four minutes and three seconds of totality were over, everything suddenly got much brighter as the moon began its retreat. By then, there were many fewer clouds than before, but a few more drifted across and made for some interesting photos.
At 3:05, the sun was back to its normal shape, and the moon had disappeared.
Now, I think that God put the clouds there just so He could pull them apart at just the right time and remind us that He is in control of everything.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork.”
Psalm 19:1
