Total Eclipse Day in Dallas

Black circle surrounded by a wispy white fog like light. That’s the sun’s corona.
What we saw today. Solar Eclipse Stock Photo ID: 2344355767 by aeonWAVE

When I made my blog post Dallas On April 8 2024 I promised to follow up with what happened. We had a small solar eclipse barbeque. It was just me and my wife, our daughter, grandpa and grandma and  our dog Rollo. Our daughter dressed up Rollo in a vampire dog cap and put bows on the beer glasses, my wife prepared the food, and I grilled chicken and hot dogs. Then we enjoyed the show. It was a great show, and we were lucky with the weather.

A Westvleteren 12 in front and my open grill in the background.
Grilling and drinking a Westvleteren 12 a Belgian Ale Quadrupel from Brouwerij de Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren in Belgium, ABV 10.2%.
A table set for five with a large parasol.
Our patio table. The little brown packages contain AAS / ISO certified solar eclipse glasses.
My daughter holding a Westvleteren 12 glass with a bow. Grandpa and grandma sitting on chairs in the background.
Our daughter holding a Westvleteren 12 glass with a bow. Grandpa and grandma in the background.
A mini-Australian Shepherd sitting on the patio floor.
Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd on the patio.

The Partial Eclipse

It was partially cloudy during the partial eclipse, but we were able to get a good look at the eclipse as it progressed. To see the partial eclipse, you have to use good solar eclipse glasses. It is primarily for safety reasons, but it is also pointless to look at the sun during a partial eclipse. You won’t see the eclipse because the powerful light from the sun overwhelms your view. I had a little filter that was placed in front of my phone camera as I took a few pictures. Admittedly they were pretty bad. I have an old Samsung Galaxy S8+ but even using newer phones it is difficult to get decent photos of something like this. This is why I need to invest in a real camera.

The photo shows a shiny crescent on black background.
Partial eclipse photo taken with my old Samsung Galaxy phone and a filter.

The Total Eclipse

1:40PM Dallas time the total solar eclipse happened and luckily it was not covered by clouds. At this point it suddenly got dark and it was safe to look straight at the sun without using the eclipse glasses. The total eclipse lasted four minutes. I have included a shutter stock photo below which closely represents what we actually saw. We saw a black circle and around the black circle was a wispy white fog like light. This was the sun’s corona and it shone with about the same power as the full moon. It kind of looked like a black hole. Our phone cameras distorted what we saw quite a bit, especially mine. The corona was blown up to 3 times its actually size and it looked messy, perhaps because it got dark. One thing this photo does not show is that the stars came out, which provided us with a little surprise.

Black circle surrounded by a wispy white fog like light. That’s the sun’s corona.
What we saw today. Solar Eclipse Stock Photo ID: 2344355767 by aeonWAVE

The Venus Surprise

Below is a photo my daughter took with her phone. The sun looks tiny (it wasn’t) and the corona is overblown and does look like it actually did. However, you can see a star looking object down on the right above and on the left of the cloud and left of the airplane contrail. I used the Google Sky Map App to find out what star it was, but it wasn’t a star. It was the planet, Venus. It was located straight south high in the sky three quarters to zenith. I have certainly never seen Venus in that position in the sky before, and it was unusually luminous as well. I’ve seen Venus many times low in sky in the west soon after sundown (then called the evening star) and I’ve seen Venus many times low in sky in the east in the morning (then called the morning star), but never like this. The total solar eclipse provided an unexpected Venus show.

The photo shows the sun totally covered by the moon. It is very small in the photo. There is star like object, that’s Venus, a cloud and airplane contrail.
Total solar eclipse photo that my daughter took. Can you find Venus?

Total Eclipse Photos

These eight pictures above were taken with cell phones by my daughter Rachel, Denise Mosier-Wanken, and Margaret Weiss Bloebaum.

How was your Eclipse Day ?

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

86 thoughts on “Total Eclipse Day in Dallas”

  1. Thank you so much for sharing these total eclipse pictures with us. Big thanks to Rachel for showing us Venus! Now that was a lovely surprise.

    We had no eclipse here in South Africa so these images were a treat.

    Glad to see you celebrated this event the way it should be 😉

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    1. Thank you Patricia. It was my first total solar eclipse and I am glad the weather cooperated. It was a treat to see some stars and planets in the middle of the day in places they normally aren’t. The sun looked like a black hole and our daughter was playing the Interstellar theme on her phone.

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      1. What a well chosen theme. Brilliant! And Hans Zimmer is such a talented composer.

        Such moments are meant to be celebrated, isn’t it. 🙂

        I remember the last total solar eclipse I was lucky to witness, in 1999 in Romania. South Africa will only see one in 2030, apparently. We had a moon eclipse here recent enough that both our children were old enough to follow it and we had such a good time in the back yard. Good memories.

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    2. Yes I agree with that. I loved the music in Interstellar (and the movie). There is a going to be a total solar eclipse in Florida Aug. 12, 2045, but that is a bit long to wait. I hope the weather will be good in south Africa in 2030.

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    1. Yes the total eclipse happened so quickly, as if someone turned off the lights. The birds got quiet and our dog Rollo was hiding was hiding under the table, but I am not sure that was the reason. It was surreal to look at the sun and see a black circle where the sun was supposed to be and then the surrounding light (corona) was not strong enough to make it hard to look at. It was like looking at the full moon, no glasses needed, and perfectly safe. Then after four minutes, suddenly there was a sharp light that popped out on the right edge, the sun started coming back. In a few seconds day light came back again and you had to put the glasses back on, and now you could see a thin bright crescent.

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  4. A terrific report, Thomas. Phone photos are tough for sure. Your partial is quite impressive and the totals were about as good as one can get without expensive gear. I enjoyed the Belgian Ale as well.

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    1. Thank you John. The partial eclipse photo was taken using an eclipse filter. The sun is very powerful so you need a filter, which is why the background is totally black. However, there was no filter needed for the total eclipse, but my phone camera made it all fuzzy. What you saw with your eyes during the total eclipse was amazing but it is too bad photos did not turn out good.

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  5. We had only a partial—about 50%?—here. My husband and I watched it through a piece of welder’s glass. The shadows got a little weird, but it didn’t get dark.

    Thanks for the pics and the tale. I enjoyed it vicariously.

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    1. Thank you Denise. It will not got get dark during a partial eclipse and you have to use welder’s glass or eclipse glasses. It will be pretty much day light until something like 99% partial. That’s why the light disappeared so quickly when the total happened, as if someone turned off the lights. During the total eclipse you don’t need any glasses. Then four minutes later there was a very bright light that turned on at the right edge of the black circle and you had to put the glasses back on quickly.

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    1. Thank you so much Kymber. I think my photos are pretty bad. Reality looked so much better. But we had a good time. I was really impressed by the totality. The black circle looking like a black hole and the fuzzy light around it and no glasses needed. The totality happened so quickly, like turning off the light.

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    1. Thank you so much Jacqui. The parasol was a bit lopsided. The totality experience was great, so much more interesting than the partial part. I was impressed by how quickly it happened, like the lights turned off, and suddenly there was a black circle in the sky that you could look straight at without glasses. I’ve never seen that before other than on pictures.

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    1. Thank you Sara. I am not sure they are great photos. Reality looked so much better. It seems like cell phones are really bad at getting good pictures of something like this. The total eclipse experience was certainly amazing.

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    2. Yes you are right Sara. But it got me thinking that maybe I should invest in a real camera one of these days. I used to have a real camera but once I got a smart phone with a camera I stopped using real cameras, but they are indeed still useful.

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    3. Yes cell phones can take decent pictures of dogs, beer, selfies, people at a close range, but scenery, close ups of small objects, things that move and especially celestial events it seems like you need a real camera.

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    1. Thank you so much Damayanti. I saw a partial solar eclipse in 2017 but seeing a total solar eclipse is so much better. There is no comparison. I am so glad the weather cooperated. If you haven’t seen a total I hope you will one day.

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  11. Incredible photos, Thomas. Thank you for sharing them. We couldn’t see anything in our part of Arizona. Rollo looks very sweet, and your patio is beautiful. 😊

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    1. Thank you so much Gwen. Rollo looks sweet but unfortunately he isn’t the friendliest dog. A partial eclipse is much less interesting. It is day light, you need glasses to see the partial eclipse and to protect your eyes. With a total you see the black circle covering the sun, the corona, it’s dark, and you don’t need any glasses. The weather has to cooperate of course, in both cases. The pictures we took make the sun/black-circle look small (it was the same size as the sun) and the corona is really fuzzy and three times as big than reality. One thing that our photos do better than the otherwise more realistic stock photo is that the sky was not black like in the stock photo. The sky was dark but not black. You could see clouds, stars, etc., like the sky soon after twilight. Our photos make the sky look lighter/bluer than it was though. I guess all photos distorted what we saw. It was by far the best with your eyes.

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    1. Thank you so much Leighton, and you are right Belgian beers are great, especially Westvleteren 12. The total solar eclipse was certainly a great experience. Much better than a partial solar eclipse.

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    1. Thank you Pooja. Yes Venus was a bonus. I did not expect that. I wondered what is that bright star and SkyMap told me it was Venus, right above my head, in the wrong place for Venus, in the middle of the day, the wrong time. But of course it made sense. Venus is fairly close to the sun. It’s there in the sky above during the day but the sun light make it so you can’t see it (normally). I should have looked for Mercury but I did not think of it.

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  14. Oh these were wonderful shares Thomas, so pleased you got to witness first hand, and well done all of you on the photos… I Your table looked lovely.. As did Rollo…..
    Wonderful to get together with family to enjoy such a unique one time event like this.. 🙂

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    1. Thank you Sue. It was a great experience. The total solar eclipse was truly amazing, and the barbeque, like you say, being together with family, and the fun. The photos does not do what we saw justice. You could look straight at the black circle above us covering the sun. No glasses needed. It kind of reminded me of a black hole, like in the Interstellar movie. My daughter was playing Interstellar music on her phone. The corona encircling the black circle shone with the strength of perhaps the full moon. However, it is fuzzy and too big in our photos. It was dark but not totally dark, so the stock photo isn’t correct either. The sky was not black. But the corona is more realistic in the stock photo. Then after four minutes of totality you saw a very bright small light at the right edge of the black circle, like a bright diamond, and the bright light grew very quickly, in a few seconds, and you had to quickly put your glasses back on, or look away. It took seconds for the light to come back. 30 seconds later you saw a thin bright crecsent again, with your glasses on of course.

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    1. Yes we had a nice party and thank you so much for your kind words Carol. I apoligize for the late reply but your comment went in my spam folder for some strange reason. I need to check it more often.

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  16. Really nice post and enjoying the day with family is a great way to spend eclipse day! Thanks for sharing the photos. I posted about by my experience on the blog. As you know, my job in astronomy actually kept me from experience the total eclipse, but I did have fun spending the morning with colleagues in Arizona and even seeing some of my team members take data while the moon passed in front of the sun in an effort to understand what we see when we observe exoplanets going in front of their host stars. The Westvleteren looks like a wonderful beverage to toast the eclipse.

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    1. Thank you so much David. Yes the Westvleteren 12 was a great beer for toasting the eclipse. Some say it’s the best beer in the world, well it is delicious. The total eclipse was truly amazing but I think “……when we observe exoplanets going in front of their host stars” beats any total eclipse.

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    2. Westvleteren 12 is pretty difficult to get a hold of in the US. I bought it online on the grey market. However, St. Bernadus Abt 12 is almost identical and a lot easier to find. I cannot taste much difference. Some people swear Westvleteren 12 is the better one of the two but I wonder what they would say in a blind test.

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  17. Wow, Thomas, so amazing. Have you ever read the book Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham? Everyone rushing out to watch this eclipse reminded me of the beginning of that book where there is a meteorite shower. I won’t say more in case you haven’t read this book. It is a favourite of mine.

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  18. How fun to have a little eclipse party and cookout! I’m glad you got to see this one, and I like the photos. Here we did go out and were able to see the partial eclipse just fine even though it was a bit cloudy. The atmosphere got a little dim, but not dark. I tries to take photos but they didn’t turn out good at all. I am glad for the day, because the next day (yesterday) it rained all day! 🙂

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    1. I should say that a total eclipse is very different from a partial, even a 99% partial, because during a partial it does not get dark and you don’t get the black circle that you can look straight at and see the corona. When the sun was just a tiny thin crescent it was still like day and then when the last 1% disappeared, the lights turned off in a couple of seconds and you could look straight at the sun because it was gone. You just saw a black circle and the corona which is much fainter than the sun. Yesterday and today it was raining here too.

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  19. Amazing pics Thomas. Looks like you did the eclipse in style! And you got lucky clouds cleared. Here in Toronto it became very overcast an hour before, so I saw nothing, except the darkness that fell. That was amazing too. 🙂

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  20. Amaziing photos Thomas. Looks like a fun celebration was had. We had clouds here too which blocked the whole show here in Toronto, but the darkness that fell was magical. Niagara Falls Ontario was one of the best vantage points in Canada, and the cloud cover moved shortly before the eclipse. Amazing. 🙂

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    1. Thank you Debbie. Yes the darkness that fell was magical and at least you’ve got to see that. I’ll bet the people in Niagara Falls were delighted. For some strange reason your comments went into my spam folder. I am sorry about that. I have to check it more often.

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    2. Yes total eclipse is a lot more interesting. It gets dark very quickly, like someone turned the lights off, the stars come out, there is a big black circle instead of the sun. It looks like a black hole surrounded by a white wispy corona, and you can look straight at the sun without glasses because the corona is not too bright. It gets cold quickly, and the birds stop singing. Then suddenly the lights come back four minutes later, and now you can no longer look at the sun without glasses. Glasses back on.

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    1. Thank you Jennifer. It is very difficult to take good photos of this sort of event using a cell phone. It becomes so blurry. In reality it looked very cool. A black circle in the sky with a whispy white corona around it that you could look straight at without glasses. It reminded me of the black hole in Interstellar. It got dark very quickly, like someone turned off the light. It wasn’t completely dark though. It was like late twilight. The corona gave us little bit of light, like a full moon.

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  25. You got much more of the show than we did in AZ. Your pictures are pretty good. I did not have a filter or eclipse-safe glasses, so I shot blindly into the sun with my camera, then used an old way of photographing eclipses by letting the sun shine through a hole in paper. Thanks for sharing all your pictures, and inviting us to the barbeque. 🙂 Thanks for visiting Story Chat as well. 🙂

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    1. Thank you Marsha. While it is still partial you have to have some sort of filter when you take photos and you can’t look straight at the sun. That changes when totality happens. Then the sun is covered by the moon/black circle and it is only the corona shining, which is dim enough to look straight at and take photos without filter.

      I am sorry you did not get to taste our chicken, hot dogs, salad and beer.

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