Total Eclipse in the Heart of Texas Hill Country

- Oh my goodness.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] This is a total eclipse of the sun.

The sun is completely blocked out by the moon.

The sun is actually 400 times larger than the moon.

Yet during an eclipse, they seem almost the same size.

A total eclipse is a sight of awesome beauty and one of nature's most spectacular displays.

(mysterious music) - This is solar filter, by the way.

You can safely look at the sun with this.

No problem at all.

To think that that's 93 million miles away, and I can see it so clearly in here.

We've been a hockey family for a long, long time, so we built a telescope outta hockey sticks.

This'll be its fourth eclipse.

It'll be our fifth.

And we're very excited about the eclipse tomorrow.

Even if it is cloudy, you know what?

We're still all gonna be together.

It's gonna get darker than it is, whatever it is.

Once we decided to make the retirement decision to live here, we started looking at property.

And my wife wanted a view over the hills, and I wanted the best view of the eclipse.

Come over here, hockey lady.

We met when we first got hired on, back in 1989.

- I never dreamed I'd work for NASA.

- Both of us wound up working in the control center supporting shuttle flights for about 10 years.

Well every time I talk about eclipses, even today, many years later, I get goosebumps talking about it.

Because it's just such a different and deep emotional experience that it's hard to even imagine.

- I'm looking forward to seeing everybody's reaction when they see totality.

- What do they do?

(both laughing) That's pretty good.

That's about right.

(mellow music) - We're here in a dark sky site and I thought it would be a great idea to have a stargaze.

So I brought my telescope and we're setting up to look at the stars.

Combine the two, having a dark sky event the night before, and then having the total solar eclipse.

Just doesn't get any better than that, from my standpoint.

I have traveled to see six of them.

This will be number seven.

Lucky number seven, I'm hoping.

So if you look in the west, up a few degrees, fairly high is a star that you can see with the naked eye now, and that is the planet Jupiter.

I am most excited about sharing this with people who have never seen one.

I'm a teacher and I get my highs from showing people things that they've never seen before.

(dynamic music) - [Interviewer] What do you wanna be when you grow up?

- What I'm wearing.

- [Interviewer] Tell me.

- Well, an astronaut.

- [Interviewer] Where do you wanna go?

What do you wanna see?

- [Child] Lunar Gateway.

I wanna see the surface of the moon and an earth rise.

- How are you?

- Good.

- It's nice to see you.

- [Speaker] Welcome to Earth.

How was it out there?

- I want you to take your finger, bring it closer and further away.

It's kind of the same kind of idea, right?

- [Chap] This is a drama-filled event.

It starts out slow.

- I saw something briefly, the edge of the moon.

- [Chap] The sun gradually gets covered for 45 minutes.

It looks like there's nothing going on.

- It's a pinhole camera.

- [Chap] Because your eyes are getting adjusted as the sunlight fades gradually.

And then, when there's 15 minutes before, you suddenly realize that the sky's not the same color.

(people cheering) - I see it!

It's almost there.

- Keep going, it's gonna do it.

Come on, come on, come on, move clouds.

Move!

- [Chap] And then, you notice the impending darkness.

The temperature drops.

(both cheering) (all cheering) (mysterious music) - [Chap] And then totality.

(all cheering) It's a celebration.

(all yelling) (mysterious music) It's just absolutely amazing.

- 15 of us came.

I don't know, it's like magic.

It's unbelievable, magical thing.

- [Chap] Part of what these eclipses are all about, for me, is making memories.

Because what is your life, without memories, what is your life?

(ethereal music)