"Awesome" is a much overused word in the US, but it was fully justified to describe the total solar eclipse that Clara and I witnessed from Nashville, Tennessee earlier this week.
We had organised our summer holiday around this rare celestial event: Washington DC, followed by a driving tour of some of the southern states, finishing off with a couple of nights in New York City. All in all a fabulous and much needed holiday for both of us given our annus horribilis so far this year.
I had been plotting to see a total solar eclipse ever since my trip to Penzance in August 1999, the last opportunity to see one on home soil for 91 years, was a damp and cloudy disappointment.
There was seemingly 24x7 media coverage of the "Great American Eclipse" in the days leading up to it, expected to be the most viewed total solar eclipse in history as the moon's shadow was due to race across the continental US from Oregon to South Carolina.
So with all this anticipation, I wasn't sure what I would make of the eclipse itself. Some people describe it as a life-changing experience, many others consider it to be the most amazing natural event they have ever witnessed.
I am a bit too conservative for any of that, but the spectacle of the moon slowly creeping across the solar disc for an hour and a half, the clouds disappearing just a few minutes before the main event, the ghostly corona surrounding the eclipsed sun for 90 seconds, followed by Baily's beads (where the sun's rays burst through the valleys on the moon) and the incredible diamond ring were - truly - awesome.
Photos and videos really don't do it justice: the sheer enigma of it all is so much better in real life. I was glad to have made the effort.
On the holiday my Parkinson's periodically reminded me of its omnipresence: discomfort in my right leg meaning I could drive for not much more than an hour at a time; general fatigue requiring afternoon naps most days; and a number of dizzy spells including almost fainting in the heat at Graceland in Memphis (The King would not have been impressed). I had recently upped my medication after an email exchange with The Professor, so maybe that had something to do with my light-headedness.
But the awesome total eclipse of the sun in Nashville was a hugely uplifting experience, and made me forget all about these things for a while.
