Shadow Comes, Eclipse Begins

From the photographer: “I and my friend Lukas were supposed to observe the eclipse near Austin, but the weather had other ideas. So, I started driving in the morning of 6th and reached Little Rock, AR late in the afternoon. On 7th we set out to the north, to reach a farm near Fox and Shirley with open views of all directions. The sky was clear on the night before the eclipse. Some high haze came and went in the morning, leaving clear skies for the eclipse. This picture shows the southern sky just a few seconds after totality began. Most of the lunar shadow lies due southwest, thus the sky in the right side is darker when compared to the left, where the shadow is yet to cover. Jupiter is visible at the upper left of the eclipsed Sun, Venus is closer to its lower right, and a careful look may find fainter Saturn and Mars further right of Venus.

The secondary image shows the last bit of the bright Sun shining behind the Moon as the diamond ring, before it is covered and 4 minutes 15 seconds of totality begins.”