4:9:24

This afternoon, we had 89% of totality in NYC for the Total Solar Eclipse, on a mostly beautiful sunny day. But in places like Vermont, Texas, and Ohio, there was 100% totality, which must have been a real sight to see. The 4+ minutes of darkness, which are normally 2 minutes. To have day turn to night, and then back to day. A spiritual/cosmic metaphor for our world going from dark to light. I wish I could have experienced it. I had to watch it on YouTube instead. But what I did see, here, was truly a once in a lifetime cosmic event. Many people gathered together for it in Battery Park. I watched it for 2 hours and it was a marvel. We won’t see it again. I let it wash over me, basked in it, made wishes, said prayers.

In my sky photo above, you can see a little planet on the upper left of the eclipsed sun, I think that is Jupiter (based on the diagram below), the great benefic! During the eclipse, you could also see Venus, on the bottom right corner of the eclipsed sun, at 15 degrees. I couldn’t see her, but it was visible in some places. If it was Jupiter, and not just a reflection(??), I will consider the photo-sighting my great fortune.

Edited to add: That “Jupiter” did immediately look like the moon to me (a second moon!), which I thought was maybe just a reflection from my camera, but I was trying to go by the diagram below. I decided it could not have been another moon because in an eclipse, the moon passes over the sun. Now people are saying the event was engineered, to get everyone to pay attention to one thing at the same time, and that is in fact the moon on the bottom left, making it a black sun. I don’t know. Anything and everything is possible now. But, either way, the experience was wonderful.

Eclipse painting by Aleksander Rodchenko, 1918

Eclipse painting by Aleksander Rodchenko, 1918

Solar eclipse self-portrait. 3:42pm, Battery Park City, NYC.