I had to check about six times that I'd actually spelled the word "eclipse" right in the title. Thanks again, everyone, and good luck with the challenge! -- Tom
You underestimate the gravity of their influence, they have a lot of pull, and when they get into the star aligns. Personally I am over the moon that they could do this even if I'm only a satelite to this channel. All in all this video was stellar and the guys should treat themselves to a corona.
Is it weird that I was more entertained by two English guys experiencing the American outdoors than the eclipse? Like, the giant moth buzzing Matt's head (not a bee, though I can see how you'd make the mistake), the hissing of wind through a cornfield that I'm too accustomed to to recognize (and I've never lived more than 1/2 hour from NYC or Philadelphia, so it's got nothing to do with urbanization), and the wooly bear caterpillar (which ten-year-old me used to get to crawl on my hands, and which I knew what it'd be as soon as Tom reacted to it). It's easy to forget that the animals we see every day are unusual to foreigners, and it's actually fun to watch that. (Or Jun from Rachel and Jun seeing squirrels and woodchucks; that was pretty fun, too.)
That's what my friends were like when I visited Sweden as someone from the Eastern US. I've never seen a magpie in person before until then, and seeing European trees was extremely strange as well since I'm accustomed to American ones.
Here in Ireland we got to do that too, it passed directly over the school and since I had no glasses with me I used my phone screen as a mirror to see it, we got total darkness and it was really amazing, especially at 10 a.m
Seeing you guys so intruiged by various American things (corn, fuzzy caterpillar, and big buzzy thing) was hilarious, because I used to live next to a corn field, with big fuzzy caterpillars, and big buzzy things, and it's all just normal to me now
You're coverage of this is very interesting, because the one thing I wanted to see at least once during the coverage I watched was the ambient effects, like how dark it got and the sky and such, and you guys showed it. Also, Tom's excitement was so great. With how much ridiculously cool stuff you've gotten to do as a result of your channel, I feel like it must take a lot to get you excited for something.
knightshousegames - I have a new video on my channel where I pointed the camera at the surrounding area where I was for the eclipse and just let it record. Unfortunately it's not that great on camera, because the camera adjusts and auto-white-balances (and also it was cloudy where I was, so I didn't see any fun shadows). But you do see it get very dark suddenly, and the lighting is weird on the clouds.
Seeing Tom so excited by the eclipse that he starts shouting at the sky almost makes up for me being stuck in England and being unable to see it. Keep up the great work, onward to the next milestone!
This almost became "two British men forget to look at the sun due to insect interference. next on Monty Python..." Has anyone ever figured out if you can do a cosmic scale double slit experiment using "bill bailey's balls" as the slits and the Earth as the screen?
It's a possibility, but it is more likely to be atmospheric disturbance - the same thing that makes stars twinkle. It shows up as the apparent size of the light source drops back to a slit, then a dot - the same reason why apparently small stars twinkly, but planets with a larger apparent size don't.
I may have just misinterpreted Matt's clue "Where we are right now is 33 degrees." as an actual clue. I pinpointed four possible locations of their car across South Carolina, on the path of totality, until I realized... He may have meant 33 degrees Celsius... Edit: For clarity, I thought he meant 33 degrees latitude. *Not Fahrenheit*
So pleased for you guys. I obsessed to Tom levels in 1999, using the fledgling internet to help identify Austria as the accessible place in the path with the best chance of clear weather, took my Dad (who loves astronomy but refuses to fly) by train to Munich and thence by car. Come the big morning we watched every forecast trying to see where the broken cloud might cover, spent two hours driving back and forth between Austria and Germany chasing gaps, eventually stopping with 15 minutes to spare in a field outside Brunau-am-Inn (yes, that one). But we only bloody saw it. I know your joy!
I'm rather amazed at how remote and alone you were. I've seen so much eclipse coverage from Madras, Oregon, and Idaho Falls, Idaho, where it was jammed with people, and you guys were totally alone. Hope you have a fun rest-of-your-trip.
It's one thing to know, intellectually, the exact reason why the sky is going dark. But it's quite another to actually experience it, and have your brain go /tilt!/ as the world you're standing in no longer matches with a lifetime of expectations, as you notice things you generally take for granted -- like shadows, and the insects going quiet. And also a reminder that we will in a really big cosmos. So I'm going to echo others' comments -- thanks for the ambience montage.
I should say, this is the best video I've ever seen on capturing the experience of watching an eclipse. With the only exception being that there was more people around me when we watched it, it pretty much nailed my thoughts on what was going on.
I wish I could like this comment several more times, as this pretty much takes the words right out of my mouth. I know Fort Worth got really dark during totality (and that the temperature drop felt refreshing more than anything after being in the Texas sun for about two hours).
14:53 - At normal speed I thought that looked like a hug, confirmed it at 0.25x :) One of the lovely things to come out of this whole eclipse event has been people sharing the experience, both far (as here) and near (as in your hug).
Vineyarddawg I love their genuine excitement over random things in a corn field. It's fun to watch people be amazed at simple and mundane but outside their normal lives things :-)
Your enthusiasm was priceless. Really made my day. I had the same reaction. My brother and I traveled about 50 miles to the GA/SC border to watch it from the parking lot of a Taco Bell.
My guess is they were probably in Nebraska, which itself is the middle of nowhere. But the thing I liked most about the video was the fact that they decided to just go out to a random spot in the middle of America and watch the eclipse there. I think the seclusion and lack of human activity enhanced the experience and it made me really happy
I was in Cornwall for the UK one. There was cloud up until about 3 minutes before the eclipse when a small break opened up just around the sun and we got to see it. Then cloud the rest of the day. It was amazing.
The absence of other people in this video is very heartening; hopefully this means that you didn't have an 11-hour, 250 mile drive back to civilization like I did.
So, I live directly in the path of Totality, and I was defeated by clouds. Not only did I not to see Totality, I didn't get to see anything because it was overcast. It got dark, and there was a little bit of a sunset on every horizon, but I saw nothing. I feel your pain Tom. Now it is my life goal to see the Totality of an Eclipse, because it was robbed from me.
I watched it from the comfort of my families front yard...with about 200 campers (it's a huge yard) in Northern Tennessee. Great moment and we were super lucky with a completely clear sky and not having to travel at all. It was awe inspiring. It looked like a black hole.
That short shadows but too dark thing is probably the most surreal thing about an eclipse for me. Full dark with lit horizons is funky, but you experience dark all the time. I had to keep doing my courier deliveries during the last one I was in. REALLY funky if you're driving with your lights on before and after - then you actually see how dark it really is.
My favorite part of this whole video is that, at 14:53, if you slow it down to 0.25x speed, you can see that Matt is going to give Tom a high-five, but Tom goes in for a full hug. He's so happy 😊 (and then they high-five right after!)
Thank you to both of you and both of your passions for the eclipse in this 7 year old video. Because I remember this video and had seen it back then, I had the enthusiasm to get to a better location for 3+ minutes of totality yesterday. Many thanks to you guys, without this video, I may not have seen totality at all yesterday. Was a mind-blowing experience (and like another commenter said, I also inherited Tom's cloud anxiety)
I'm so glad that my flight home from the US got unexpectedly delayed by 3 hours that day and I ended up being on the ground rather than boarding a plane at the time of the eclipse! As someone who had never seen it before, I can totally empathise with Tom's excitement here.
I'm genuinely laughing out of joy for Tom right now. And that's coming from someone who's usually stone cold when movies try to make you all warm and fuzzy or super-sad with certain scenes.
did anyone else mishear Tom say 'I thought I was going to get defeated by clowns again' at 10:36? I thought he was about to open up about his childhood memory of some unfortunate incident with violent clowns haha. Maybe he could work it into a sponsor spot for that movie 'It'...
yay this made me so happy!!! its been about 12 hours since the eclipse happened in america and ive been here in singapore sad about missing it. you finally recreated how i wouldve been. thank u!!!
I'm incredibly envious. Where I live, we had 94% coverage. My kiddos and I have never seen a solar eclipse, and totality was going to happen only 3 hours south of us. We REALLY wanted to see it, so I planned on driving them down there. As it turns out, 2 days before the eclipse, I found out that my new job scheduled meetings for that day and I wasn't going to be able to take them. We were so upset and my 13 year old was in tears. Que the superhero hubby who said he would take off work and drive them down. While I was super bummed I wasn't going to be able to go, I figured at least I'd see 94%, which was better than nothing. No joke, at 11:30 am, right when the eclipse was supposed to start, a MASSIVE storm rolled in; wind, rain downpour, 100% cloud coverage, hail, lightening, non-stop rolling thunder, the works. It lasted almost 2 hours and just before 2 pm, right after the eclipse was going to be fully past, the skies cleared. On the upside, my hubby and kids had a perfect, clear, unobstructed view of the whole thing. I'm still currently equally parts ecstatic that they got to see it, and heartbroken that I didn't get to see even a hint of it.
Thank you for a brilliant video. I was clouded out in July 1999 in Plymouth. My reaction was much the same as Tom's. Here in Crossville, TN it was 50/50 for the cloud just before totality our cloud moved.
Oh my god, I actually live in Cairns right now and back then, when Tom was talking about the clouds over the Eclipse i was there as well. I know the exact location too because when we were there we the clouds were covering 95% of the eclipse and if we moved down the beach to the next area we could have seen it. I totally forgot about that, just to think i could've met Tom if i had known of him sooner. Damn.
It hasn't been out for longer than a few hours, but I've already watched it twice; just to see the excitement when totality occurs. Bloody made my day, haha!
We had perrfect visibility here in middle TN and saw lots of the crescent effects on the ground. Saw birds heading for their trees and heard crickets. Lighting definitely changed as you guys observed. It was great.
I travelled down the country to see the eclipse in 1999, we went to Devon (Slapton to be exact iirc) to view it and just as the Moon passed in front of the Sun, the clouds came by and the entire sky went overcast, still got to see an amazing glimpse of it though. Now, 16 years later I have seen three eclipses.
This was a really fun video. I got considerably more enjoyment out of watching your reactions than out of anything else surrounding the eclipse. Matt's excitement was especially infectious, and I loved all the little details you noticed.
I travelled from the UK to Teton Village, WY... completely clear skies. And it was surprisingly emotional - I just started crying and I have no idea why! Just incredible. And well worth the journey.
