All photos by Jonathan Schechter, May 20, 2012

Brandon Township, Michigan

 I am glad, very glad, I listened to my  nature-savvy, sky-watching friend Amanda who called to remind me a solar eclipse is about to start: "I think we can see it here in Michigan too!" Just minutes earlier the radio newscaster was stating rather clearly that the viewing was to be had only in the western United States. 

News reporter was wrong. Amanda was right! 

Although the famed "ring of fire" around the moon was not visible in Michigan, these photos show the media dropped the accuracy ball! 

The first bites of the hungry moon on the sun were clearly visible.

With the sun dropping rapidly behind my neighbor's stately evergreens to the west I grabbed my camera, ran for my hill top and waited.  Ten minutes later image number one (above) was "mine".
Brother Moon took a bite out of the lower right side of Sister Sun.
 The low cloud bank obscured most of the rest of the sky show, but made for awesome colors  and images of the slightly muted sun as it sank in the Eastern USA. 

 Two of those images are below.

(NOTE: no filters used, no color adjustments, no cropping.)