Before A Solar Eclipse, The Whole World Goes Wavy

18 March 2015

- If you’ve seen a solar eclipse, you know that just before the sun is hidden from view something very strange happens. Shadows start swirling, as if the light from the sun is shining through a heat haze. The phenomenon is called “shadow bands.”

Very few things prepare you for the strange dimming that the world goes through during an eclipse, making everyone squint as though they’re going blind. The sudden drop in temperature is pretty strange, too.

As the sun stops being a circle and becomes a crescent, shadows change. When you look at the shadows formed by the canopies of trees, or the slats in a bench or chair, you will see that the slivers of light between them have turned from rounded shapes to odd little crescents.