My wife and I drove to the little town of Swansea, South Carolina where we avoided the crowds and the clouds, for a perfect view of a total solar eclipse. We were on the grounds of a public library with about 30 other sun-watchers, and the librarians provided cookies, ice cream, drinks and of course, solar viewing glasses. No matter what the skeptics say, watching on a screen is not like being there. The most amazing thing is that you get goose bumps. It happened to everyone around us. Some say their hair stood on end. Same thing. It's from looking up into a familiar sky and seeing a black demon that shouldn't be there. There is a definite adrenalin rush at totality. It gets dark. The insects start a chorus. Any birds around call in confusion. The wind picks up, and the air cools noticably. The brightest stars become visible. In our spot, the cumulus clouds that dotted the sky all day completely disappeared about halfway into the eclipse. We had fun looking at the ground as the moon progressed over the sun. The dappled spots of sunlight under any tree turned into crescents, as the spaces between the leaves acted as little lenses to focus the light. After totality the crescents pointed the other way as the moon moved off. The light after totality is different, too. It has the character of a street lamp, grayish and metallic. Is this what sunlight is like on an outer planet?