This eclipse occurred very close to sunset, so the shadow of totality was a very oblique, cigar-shape, without the sharp boundaries normally seen when the sun is overhead at the time of totality. The corona was extensive, but ot more so than in 1999 when I watched a total eclipse in Turkey (see the Turkey page).

A couple of dozen of us assembled on a mountain in hopes of seeing the awesome approaching shadow. We did not see it, proabably because of the oblique shadow already mentioned. We noticed that totality did not come on suddenly, as the sun's rim was still visible (diamond ring effect) for a few seconds after totality was timed to begin.

A nice bonus of the eclipse at sunset was a view of the two horn of the eclipsed sun.
 

This little painted dragon  was perefectly camouflaged in the local rocks.

We put out the sheeting in anticipation of the wave phenomenon sometimes seen before and after totality, but we did not see anything. The high wind played havoc with teh shets, but we also think that the very low position of teh sun in the sky at totality gave an extremely oblique shadow (cigar-shaped instead of circular) that mitigated against some phenomena like the "awesome approaching shadow" which we did not see either.

The arrangement with telescope and screen-in-a-box that we used to gie everyone a view of approaching totality.