From your vantage point in Tenn where it was a total or near total covering, did you see any stars at the moment of totality? Is the nighttime sky typically very dark where you are?
I’m in New York City where we had an 75% coverage. I could barely detect it being darker, even at the time of the 75% peak. Then again, we had a few clouds rolling by at the time. And with the occasional cloud pass we were actually able to see the eclipse without the glasses!, through the clouds. An amazing sight. However, even then I didn’t stare at it for too long.
Drove up into Nebraska and caught it! The last 10-15% approaching totality was very impressive. Anything short of that is really a tease!
It gets dark fast the last 10% and temps dropped at least 15 degrees. Close to 15000 people in the immediate viewing area and IT GETS SUPER QUIET and dead still! The bright stars becoming visible, the darkness of the moons shadow covering the intense sun lets the suns corona be seen. It was not pitch black but dark, and you could see the perimeter of the moons shadow moving across the clouds and the horizon was lit up brightly but it was dark straight up!. It was 75% overcast that was split open right where the sun was. Without the clouds its difficult to make out the movement of the moons shadow across the ground easily.
Whoever planned this event knew exactly what he was doing!
I saw a few bright stars in Rexburg ID.
Sky was fairly dark.
Corona was bright.
Horizon 360° was pink, shading to dim blue above.
Hundreds within earshot cheered and applauded when it was over!
From where I was standing it was total nighttime darkness. Most eyes were on the totality event and not looking for stars but I did see some of the larger ones. The strangest part for me was the night bugs. They were extremely loud and confused. Security lights all popped on all of a sudden. When it was getting darker to start with it was gradual but when it got close to the total eclipse it fell dark extremely fast and got light just as fast. It wasn’t a natural sunset or sunrise like normal. During the totality it even seemed darker to me than a normal night darkness for some reason. It was like the darkness you have when there is no moon. The whole thing was kind of creepy but fascinating at the same time. I’m in a rural area so out nights are very dark except during the full moon. It was that dark.