{"id":18940,"date":"2017-08-22T00:49:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T06:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=18940"},"modified":"2017-08-23T07:18:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T13:18:45","slug":"at-total-eclipse-trying-to-describe-the-indescribable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/08\/at-total-eclipse-trying-to-describe-the-indescribable\/","title":{"rendered":"At total eclipse, trying to describe the indescribable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-18940\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"18940-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/a25mgEclipse2Flat.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/a25mgEclipse2Flat-771x515.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>John Warner shot this at the Wind Point fishing access 10 miles south of Thermopolis, Wyo., in the Wind River Canyon on the Wind River Indian Reservation. This was just about 1 minute, 45 seconds into the total eclipse. For more photos, click on the arrow at top right. <\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-college-kids-1-of-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-college-kids-1-of-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A group of friends from all over Wyoming watched the eclipse from The Edward E. Murane Playing Fields, just above Mike Sedar Park.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/aPhasesFlat7mg-771x171.jpg*771*171\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/aPhasesFlat7mg.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>John Warner also put together this composite image of photos of phases of the total eclipse.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-coo-uple-1-of-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-coo-uple-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The hood of a car makes a decent viewing stand. Mike Sedar Park, Casper.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-Ben-and-kids-1-of-1-771x560.jpg*771*560\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-Ben-and-kids-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Ben Toman, right, came up to Casper from Baton Rouge, La., with his wife, Ashley, to see the eclipse. Here he lets a couple of other visitors view the developing eclipse through his Orion SkyQuest telescope.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/door-771x830.jpg*771*830\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/door.jpg\" \/><h6>Lisa Kemmick <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Lisa Kemmick, alas, had to work Monday, but she stepped outside for part of the eclipse and shot this photo of a tree shadow on a door, on the West End of Billings.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-Minnesotan-1-of-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse2-Minnesotan-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Nicholas Hartman drove out from Minnesota for his first total eclipse. He had an array of high-quality gear, including a laptop on which he displayed a live video of the developing eclipse.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18940-slide8\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/aPan.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/aPan-771x303.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>In the Wind River Canyon, a few eclipse-watchers make themselves ready.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 18940, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/08\/at-total-eclipse-trying-to-describe-the-indescribable\/', 8 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>CASPER, Wyo. \u2014 Shortly after the total eclipse ended, my brother\u2019s 9-year-old niece, Lily Litman, said, \u201cThat was literally the coolest thing I\u2019ve seen in my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve got a few years on Lily, but I would have to agree. For pure awe and wonder, I can\u2019t imagine what might compete with seeing a total eclipse in near-perfect conditions, which is what we had in Casper on Monday.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I had made an effort to avoid learning too much about the science behind a total eclipse. I wanted to feel, however faintly, the deep shiver that must have been felt by prehistoric observers.<\/p>\n<p>I needn\u2019t have worried. The moment total eclipse was achieved, I was almost incapable of thinking. I just stared at the blue-black disc of the moon and the fountains of light pulsating out from the hidden sun, and virtually the only coherent thought I could form was, \u201cPlease, please don\u2019t go away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks earlier, I wasn\u2019t sure the total eclipse was something I wanted to see badly enough to make the four-hour drive to Casper. While it was occurring, I felt like it was something I\u2019d been waiting for my whole life.<\/p>\n<p>I can only compare it to a recurring dream I used to have, in which I\u2019d walk outside or look out a window at night and see all sorts of impossible phenomena \u2014 several moons, a spinning galaxy throwing off sparks, or stars aligned in startling new patterns.<\/p>\n<p>It was one of those dreams in which I\u2019d say to myself, still inside the dream, \u201c<em>This<\/em> time it\u2019s real. <em>This<\/em> one is not a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d always wake up disappointed and frustrated, so the total eclipse really was like a dream come true. It struck me with all the force of all those dreams and more because this time it was real.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>I want to tell people who weren\u2019t there something important, and I don\u2019t want anyone to think I\u2019m gloating. It\u2019s just this: the next time you\u2019re anywhere near a total eclipse, take the trouble to go see it. Even if, on Monday, you were where the effect was 99 percent of totality, it couldn\u2019t have been remotely like seeing it at 100 percent.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019ve got your eclipse glasses on, it is interesting, very interesting, to watch the moon slowly move into the path of the sun. But when the last tiny bit of light winks out and you pull off the glasses and stare directly at that shimmering disc perfectly covering the sun, staring with your own eyes and alive to the whole surrounding scene, you\u2019ve seen something you will never forget nor be able adequately to describe.<\/p>\n<p>My eyes welled with tears in the first few seconds of total eclipse, but possibly the most amazing moment came at the very end. When the moon left dead center, creating the so-called diamond ring effect, where a tiny ball of unimaginably bright light suddenly peeks over the edge of the moon, I shuddered and I think I might have shouted something, or maybe just groaned.<\/p>\n<p>It was awe but it was also intense longing. Everyone remarked afterward how it was the fastest 2\u00bd minutes ever. There was such a rush of emotions, so many things I wanted to think about and observe and ponder, that I wanted more time more than I have ever wanted anything.<\/p>\n<p>I might not have gone to Casper were it not for my brother-in-law, Scott Bennett, who drove out from Stillwater, Minn., with my sister, Mary Jo. Scott told us a couple of weeks ago that he had witnessed a total eclipse as a young boy and that nothing since then had affected him so profoundly.<\/p>\n<p>That was quite an endorsement. The funny thing is, when he arrived in Billings and we grilled him about that earlier experience, he wasn\u2019t sure when it had happened. It wasn\u2019t until Saturday, in a fit of Googling, that he finally figured it out: It was 1954, when he was 7, in Minneapolis, Minn.<\/p>\n<p>That total eclipse was visible in only a handful of states, and only in Minnesota for any substantial distance. He was clearly moved by this second experience, but I didn\u2019t even ask him to describe it in detail, or to compare it with the first one.<\/p>\n<p>I was surprised to find that I had grown quite selfish about this experience, interested only in my own reaction. I think this was because I knew right away that the experience was incommunicable, so what was the point of asking anyone else to attempt to describe it?<\/p>\n<p>I am only trying now for the sake of those who were not in 100 percent territory, to urge them not to let another chance go in the future.<\/p>\n<p>John Warner, whose photograph leads off this story, wrote in the email to which the photo was attached: \u201cThis event turned out the way I thought it might, basically that it&#8217;s impossible to photograph in any way that shows what it is like being there. Now that I&#8217;ve seen it,\u00a0I really believe it&#8217;s not doable in still photos.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true, which is why I love his photograph. It captures something of the grandeur of the moment without attempting to show the grandeur of the eclipsed sun itself in any detail.<\/p>\n<p>That is something that only the human eye can capture \u2014 a human eye in communication with a brain and a heart and with something that must be the human soul.<\/p>\n<p><em>Special thanks to Tom and Merry Litman and their beautiful daughters Lily and Ella. They put us up and gave us the great pleasure of allowing us to accompany them on this amazing adventure. Tom is the brother of Pam Kemmick, who is married to my brother, John. They were with us, too. Watching a total eclipse with family is a good way to go. To my absent wife and daughters I can only say, \u201cNext time!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CASPER, Wyo. \u2014 Shortly after the total eclipse ended, my brother\u2019s 9-year-old niece, Lily Litman, said, \u201cThat was literally the coolest thing I\u2019ve seen in my entire life.\u201d I\u2019ve got a few years on Lily, but I would have to agree. For pure awe and wonder, I can\u2019t imagine what might compete with seeing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14,1],"tags":[6178,6177,6179],"class_list":["post-18940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-casper-wyoming","tag-total-eclipse","tag-wind-river-canyon","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18940"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18964,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18940\/revisions\/18964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}