Only a tiny sliver of the Sun's photosphere, or actual surface, is still visible in the binoculars through the special solar filter. The Moon is taking much longer to cover up that last little bit of the Sun than I thought it would. Wild cheers and screams break out. We are witness to one of the most awesome and rare sights in all of nature, a total eclipse of the Sun, and one of the longest on record. I have traveled 3,000 miles to stand in the shadow of the Moon.
First prominences become visible at the start of totality.
They are getting thicker and thicker. At the start of totality I can pretty much see through the clouds, and in the 11 x 25 binoculars I can see a spectacular pair of prominences on the Sun's limb, and a really nice coronal streamer. The ground, however, is very bright, much brighter than it is supposed to be, probably because of the clouds. I can easily read as I fumble through my bag trying to find the correct film to reload at mid-eclipse. I have lost my mind, gone crazy, and shot all of the film in the cameras after 2nd contact as fast as I could change the shutter speeds.