On Aug. 21, after filling my car's tank at a gas station, I set off at 6:00 AM to drive across Maryland, through a tiny piece of West Virginia, down through Virginia and then across a small section of Tennessee to rendezvous with the total solar eclipse. The eclipse's shadow was set to darken parts of the United States along a path from the West Coast all the way to the East Coast.

My 537-mile odyssey to the path of totality took 8 hours and 20 minutes, including pit stops. My eventual destination was a nearly empty parking lot that I randomly chose at 2:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 14 minutes before totality. That spot was in Alcoa, a few miles south of Knoxville and about five miles into the 40-mile wide path. As soon as I got out of my car, I put on my solar eclipse viewing glasses. I had made it. I reached a good spot on the path of totality with about 13 minutes to spare.

Here are a few photos that I took just before, during and a little after the moon's total eclipse of the sun. I did not aim my camera at the sun. Instead, I photographed the eerie sunlight that illuminated my surroundings. I found that changing light much more interesting than looking at the sun's partial eclipse. The eclipse finally became spectacular when totality occurred. The sun's corona suddenly became visible, like an explosion, but a silent one. The Diamond Ring and Baily's Beads were nearly as awesome.

Where I stood, totality and darkness lasted only about one minute. During that minute, I no longer needed the special viewing glasses. I stared at the magnificent corona. It seemed very close. It was staggering in its beauty. It was much more awesome than what I had expected, much more glorious than in the photos and videos I had seen of previous total eclipses. And then it was gone from view. I had to quickly protect my eyes again with my special viewing glasses as the sun started to peek out from behind the moon.

It was a totally overwhelming experience. From that moment, I was hooked. I resolved to chase the next total solar eclipse that will occur in the continental United States -- in 2024. And so should everyone who has a chance to do so. From experience, I can now echo what others have said -- that a total solar eclipse is one of the most mind-blowing things any one of us will ever see in our lifetime.

This was the first one for me. My top priority was to simply witness and experience the total eclipse directly, with my own eyes. My next aim, a distant second, was to grab any opportunity to photograph what I had heard would be the strange and eerie sunlight during the various phases of the eclipse. Photographing the sun itself during the eclipse was something I did not try to do. I was not geared or ready for it. But PBase friend and photographer Dan Greenberg was prepared and set up for it, in Oregon. Here is a link to his "Chasing the Eclipse" gallery: https://pbase.com/dlgphoto/eclipse2017

All the photos in this gallery have been resized for online viewing. Except for one cropped image, frame no. 1487-c, all the Alcoa, TN, photos here are otherwise unaltered JPEGs straight out of my camera, which captured the various scenes accurately. Note that the images and other content here are protected by copyright laws. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use, downloading, copying, printing or direct linking is prohibited.

>>> CLICK ON A THUMBNAIL PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, AFTER WHICH YOU CAN MANUALLY GO FORWARD OR BACKWARD TO THE OTHER IMAGES IN THIS GALLERY. THE PICTURES HERE CAN ALSO BE VIEWED AS A SELF-ADVANCING SLIDESHOW, BUT MINUS THE TECHNICAL AND OTHER DETAILS. SEE THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER OF THIS WINDOW. HAPPY VIEWING! <<<