Simone WilsonWhere were you between the hours of 5:24 p.m. and 7:42 p.m. yesterday?
If your answer is “catching up on back-episodes of Game of Thrones, you heathen” — joke's on you, brother. You just missed a real-life fantasy apocalypse: a stunning solar ring over the mountaintops/bay views of Los Angeles, the likes of which won't return for another 59 years.
The good news:
Thousands of solar-eclipse watchers were taking in the spectacle through their viewfinders (as opposed to those special nerd glasses that Griffith Observatory was handing out), and quickly uploaded their footage to the Internet for 59 years of reminiscing.
Here are our favorite videos and photos to come out of California, where the so-called “Ring of Fire” was especially spectacular.
5. Local radio station KPCC posted a time-lapse video of the eclipse. It's not insanely close-up or anything, but has a sweet tumbling-snowflake effect that gives us a lovely case of the spins.
4. L.A. photographer “Silvermic” Tweeted this one to the Los Angeles Times, saying he took it at Cabrillo Beach. Screw the observatory — looks like the place to be for Sunday's end-of-worlds was the neon coastline.
“Took a pic of the eclipse at cabrillo beach this evening”; Credit: @S1lverMicGeorge via Twitter
[Update: After posting this list, we came across Flickr user jimnista's incredible time-lapse photo of the eclipse, taken at Sunset Beach. Consider this an honorable mention, and another case for coastal viewing.]
“May 20 2012 Solar Eclipse near Sunset Beach / Huntington Beach, CA – timelapse / composition of “phases” of the eclipse during the approximate 2 hour duration.”; Credit: jimnista via Flickr
3. Really not sure how this happened, but British papers are saying that “a romantic stargazer” in Los Angeles “captured an incredible heart-shaped moon as a rare 'ring of fire' eclipse crossed the skies overnight.” Making the Johnny Cash references even more appropriate.
“A branch foregrounds the heart shaped sun during an annular solar eclipse seen from Los Angeles”; Credit: Daily Mail
2. In another Tweet to the Times, Culver City resident “Marke” framed the moon-looking sun in backyard jungle. Apocalypto, or what?
“Solar Eclipse looked pretty cool from Culver City!”; Credit: @mmarke via Twitter
1. Up in NorCal, a prep-school science teacher used 700 photos from “a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope” to create this time-lapse video, as terrifyingly zoomed in as we could get without burning ourselves. And the Internet died happy.
[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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