Here’s a couple of total solar eclipses for you.
I'm lucky to have seen three:
Feb 26, 1998, on the island of Aruba
Aug 17, 2017, Mitchell, Oregon
April 8, 2024, Russelville, Arkansas
Each required a lot of planning in advance to get (fly, drive, sail) into the path of totality.
Many people have seen partial solar eclipses. I have, too. Not the same.
If you are not sure whether you have seen a total solar eclipse, then you have not seen one, (is there any way to say that and not sound annoying?)
There will always be more for you to have your chance, but you have to plan in advance (use this chart).
I always like to encourage the birth of new umbraphiles.
I recommend passing on the annular total eclipses if you have a choice. I've never seen one, but I know people who have seen both and they say it is not anywhere near as impressive. During an annular total solar eclipse, the moon is so distant that you see more of the bright ring (annulus) of the sun around the moon. You can't see the fine detail of the corona. If one came to my backyard, I'd see it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see one.
Alas, I do not have video of the total eclipse I saw on the island of Aruba in 1998, my first. (Prior to this I was spending a week getting blown away scuba diving on the nearby island of Bonaire. Saw such magnificent colorful corals and marine life and I just hope they are are surviving warming, acidification and plastic.)
What I remember: Thousands descended on this Caribbean island. The skies were briefly cloudy, so we jumped into a madly careening taxi dodging goats on the road pointing to an area with clear skies saying to our poor driver, go! go! go! Made it. Many other members of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society were with me, setting up gear.
I knew what to expect, having read about it in advance. What I did not expect was my emotional reaction. I felt a surprisingly strong primitive horror seeing the sun get blacked out in the middle of this day by this eerie black circle of the moon. It's still one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. And then a few minutes of seeing the silvery corona of the sun dance, the sky turn dark, the planets appear, the air grow chill. I knew, after that, that I wanted to share this.
Then, thousands of visitors to the island all hung out and celebrated, packing the restaurants and bars. I did catch a glimpse of nutritional celebrity Andrew Weil dining with a group of people in a restaurant, after. (He was eating a salad.)
I like the 2017 video we took better, because the eclipse was low enough that we could capture the eclipse plus people in the foreground simultaneously. This time we were with the Eastbay Astronomical Society of northern California. I think the details are better resolved in this video. At the end of the eclipse, I don’t know if you can hear it, but some guy present cracked me up by shouting, "DO IT AGAIN!"
The first solar eclipse I remember, just a partial, I was about ten. I was in this special program called MGM at Sierra Vista School in La Habra, California where I grew up. We were allowed outside, and sat under awnings that happened to have holes in them. I spread out a piece of paper and saw that the shadows looked strange.
What had been circular reflections of the sun on my paper turned to crescents. I started sketching them, and they formed an arc across my paper. Our teacher, Mr Norris, noticed this, and got excited. I don't remember getting photographed. My childish self still wishes the article gave me credit for the discovery, but they did not. But that is how I remember it happened.
My mom was sweet to tack this little note on this, she had mailed it to me, a while ago.
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