Agreed... I didn’t need a contrail or airplane to enjoy that eclipse of the sun. A huge black hole surrounded by burning orange and yellow fire, the site of Jupiter to the upper left and Venus to the lower right and the sheer excitement of that 2 minutes and 17 seconds was enough for me.
My only disappointment... Not being able to view that celestial event for hours on end. Way too short for such an amazing experience.
All in all I’ve been lucky... I’ve seen the Northern Lights when they were clearly visible for several weeks in the spring and summer of 1978, creating an actual cone from which they spectacularly emanated, the nearly live television images of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaking up and exploding on Jupiter’s surface in July of 1994, watching the Hale-Bopp comet by naked eye in 1997, and now a full eclipse of the sun for 2 minutes and 17 seconds... The one I could not do without... That total eclipse. It was short, but completely astounding and memorable.
Venus you couldn't miss. I tried to spot Jupiter but no success. Maybe the haze...... My colleague was trying for pictures with his cellphone, using filters cut from extra eclipse glasses, but no luck. I didn't even try. The pros will do it far better than I ever could.