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# Celestial body
- URL: https://www.gilespcroft.com/celestial-body/
- Published: 2026-08-14T06:00:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-14T06:00:15.000Z
- Description: A wondrous experience that's been happening throughout the ages 🌙
- Author: Giles P Croft
- Tags: Nature & Outdoors, Real stories, Quick insight, Presence, IMPLICATIONS, Expectations

There's no way you can experience an almost total solar eclipse and then not write about it.

What a phenomenon!

😮

I mean, just for a moment, put yourself in the skin of someone from an ancient civilisation and imagine witnessing this:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/2026/08/2026-08-14-Celestial-body_eclipse.jpeg)

Photo by me, 10 minutes before maximum coverage. iPhone 16 Pro 5x Zoom, taken through eclipse glasses, atop the **Rholben*, Abergavenny, UK

I mean, it would freak you right out, wouldn't it?! 😱

You'd certainly fall in line and get worshipping the Sun God, as if your life *literally* depended upon it.

Of course, being human and having a mind, I went into it with expectations. My observations were:

- Even at the maximum 92.8% coverage—just the teeniest sliver of sun still visible—it remained remarkably bright. The sun is very bright!!
- Shadows were the oddest thing. The quality of light had that end-of-sunset feel to it, but the shadows weren't long enough, because the sun was still higher in the sky
- We were all ooh-ing and ahh-ing too much to notice whether nature went quiet around us
- I had a real feeling of the moon being an actual celestial body, as it slid—perfectly round and black—across the face of our local star. It was totally awesome to witness
- We looked like a bunch of cultists, all staring in wonder with our eclipse specs on.

🤓

Interestingly, although it was an experience I'll not forget any time soon, it felt like more of a curiosity than an existential reset.

It didn't have the power of presence that looking up at the stars does for me, like this:

[Look up!…at the stars! It’s the ultimate reset. 🌌![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/icon/DR_Lockup-Black-3-5d13efd8-976c-4ce5-aa6e-2013692f3743.png)The Daily RemindersGiles P Croft![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/thumbnail/2024-10-04-Look-up-5ac57a41-dbf5-4762-a705-1daaa8aa3a00.JPG)](https://www.gilespcroft.com/look-up/)

Maybe it's a scale thing: solar system vs. galaxy and beyond?

What a wondrous thing, this life is!

✨

Giles

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