Fairmont Nebraska Welcomes Diamond Rings at Great American Total Solar Eclipse 2017

What a spectacular event! A total solar eclipse is something that everyone should experience. At a well planned, town hosted site in Fairmont, Nebraska some 5,000 people gathered from all over to see totality on August 21, 2017. I took several photos of eclipse enthusiasts and of course the two celestial orbs doing their dance, that I will post soon.

Here are the two best images of the diamond ring effect direct from Fairmont. The top photo occurred as the moon slowly passed in front of the sun leaving what is termed the diamond ring effect. It lasts only a few seconds but can be seen again as the moon pulls away from the solar disk about two and a half minutes later. 

Clouds had been around for most of the morning leading up to the total eclipse. Totality started out with little to no clouds but gained a few more wisps in just a few minutes. The bottom photo shows the exiting diamond ring effect with clouds acting as a frame. Look close and see the solar prominence, large, bright features extending outward from the Sun's surface at the noon to four o'clock position. 

One thing that I learned - even the best photos and videos cannot do justice to the totality experience. So many changes occur in the minutes or seconds before totality - like the rapid darkening of the earth's sky, the slight decrease in air temperature, the expansion of the solar corona and so forth. I'll get more photos posted as soon as I can.