in buffalo for the eclipse

 The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I have just moved to a new house... and two days after we moved, we were off to Buffalo for a long-planned trip to see the eclipse. It had been one of my wife's "bucket list" items, and I make a practice not to stand in the way of those.

It was great. I wrote the following to an acquaintance who lives in England:

==

Buffalo, NY was cloud covered most of the day, which worked reasonably well for viewing the eclipse. While we had the approved protective glasses, we only needed them for those few occasions when the clouds broke and what was left of the sun showed through. Instead, the clouds provided protection, and while they did sometimes completely block our view of the sun, more often the clouds we just enough so that we could see the eclipse happen without the need for protection.

Totality was scheduled for about 3:18pm local time, but occlusion of the sun started about an hour earlier. We went out to the street and stood where we would be able to see. Across the street, there was a bar where a number of customers had been preparing (ahem!); one was so prepared that he fell over backwards, but we later saw him up on the roof with the others. There was a festive atmosphere; we had three locals standing on the street with us sharing thoughts and politenesses, and later the excitement and giddiness.

It takes a LOT of occlusion to change the quality of the light locally, but as the sun got more and more covered, darkness came on. It wasn't the darkness of sunset - the colors were different, and it came on much more quickly. As totality approached, the darkness became more complete: streetlights came on, and we noticed cheering and shouts from other bars on this street. Even through the clouds, with totality we saw the irregular corona, and a bright spot towards the "bottom" of the sun that we later learned was a sun flare.

And then the light began to come back, and within about a half-hour, the light was back and we went on our way. My wife had made this a "bucket list" item, and was still excited and grinning at bedtime.

==

My wife got some video of the event:

 

We came back to a house full of unopened boxes, and we still can't find anything. Moving is crazy. But the eclipse was immense.