An observer with much experience with eclipses, Steve Edberg, gazed silently at the Sun when its corona appeared near midday on July 11, 1991. Just stared. Even though he had seen the corona several times before, he was overwhelmed with its size and beauty. This was to be a long total eclipse – almost seven minutes of totality – so he had the chance to preserve this moment. “Well now,” he muttered after the moment. “Perhaps I should take a picture or something?”

No matter how well you prepare for it, unless you are a person of extreme discipline, the onset of totality will drag you away from your planned program. You just want to gaze at it. That is actually the right approach, and no matter how much or how little time totality will last, you do want to have some time for just taking it all in. If totality is long, as it was in 1991 and in 2009, then you have some time for this. If totality is short, then make the time. The shortest totality I've ever experienced was the hybrid eclipse, annular in places and total in other places, in April 2005. Even then I gave myself about five of the 29 seconds of totality to enjoy the view before I resumed my plan.