INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — This past Saturday, many were treated to the partial solar eclipse across the country.

The eclipse from Oregon to Texas was annular, which means the sun wasn’t completely covered.

Despite a lot of cloud cover in central Indiana, some of us lucked out with the partial solar eclipse breaking through the clouds at times. Our peak of the eclipse was at 1:02 p.m. Saturday, which had over 44% of the sun covered here in Indianapolis.

Other spots in the country that had less cloud cover could see a cool phenomenon within the shadows. Crescent-shaped shadows were noted by multiple National Weather Service offices in the United States.

Photos of the crescent shape shadows

What happened?

The crescent shadows were caused by tiny spaces between tree leaves, which creates a pinhole effect. That pinhole effect projects crescents during the partial eclipses, especially noticeable on tree shadows.

On April 8, Hoosiers should see these shadows in the lead-up to the total solar eclipse, assuming we do not have cloud cover in place.

Even more interesting in areas that saw the complete annular eclipse, temperatures dropped a few degrees, as the Amarillo weather service noted on the X platform.

Total solar eclipse path on April 8, 2024