As a child, seeing future eclipse paths in the World Book Encyclopedia, knowing that a total solar eclipse would pass over Dallas on 8 April 2024, I vowed to be at this specific spot. What then was under-construction Reunion Tower would be directly under the eclipse, for a truly unique foreground, if I could live this long, and it wasn’t cloudy. Low clouds parted just in time! This was everything I had dreamed for nearly five decades, and more — a moving and immersive experience vastly different from my other solar totality, on the High Plains of Wyoming, yet just as inwardly powerful. Being intimately familiar with this area, I was (mostly) ready for the sight, but not the sound. For just a few seconds into the shadow, an eerie silence held as crowds all over downtown stood awestruck at a sight most never had seen. Then the impact of this moment roared forth from hundreds of thousands of people near and far, a massive expression of unrestrained and astonished joy, echoing at once through the urban canyons and wafting high into the darkened sky. It humbles me to ponder that no living person will experience this view again outside photographs. [3-photo HDR stack, to render closest to how I saw it]
