Monday afternoon, Nashville and the Belmont community got to experience a once-in-a-lifetime event: The first total solar eclipse in Music City since 1478.
During the event, the Vision managed to grab a pretty spectacular time lapse video of the eclipse passing over the Lawn. However, one part of the video quickly became a point of curiosity for us and eclipse-viewers around Nashville.
No words #Eclipse2017 pic.twitter.com/QHYNQZ2ClT — Belmont Vision (@belmontvision) August 21, 2017
At around the 16-second mark of the video — during totality — an orange, sunset-looking phenomenon appeared on the horizon to the North and Northwest.
Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics Thomas Spence explained to the Vision what we’re actually looking at during that section of the video.
“The orange horizon is a common effect during eclipses. You are seeing light filtering back toward us from outside of the region experiencing totality,” Spence said. “It results in the same effect as the orange glow just after the sun sets and light filters back to you from over the horizon.”
The next total solar eclipse that will be visible from the United States will be April 8, 2024, so until then, we’ll have to enjoy the amazing collection of photographs and videos of the event.
Click here for Nasa’s open-sourced compilation of eclipse photographs.