GunnerJ posted:

Dunno if it helps but I think part of the impact for me is that, due to clouds rolling in, I really thought I was going to see nothing cool. I'd resigned myself to not seeing a corona, just like maybe it'll be neat when the light goes out. So it became like a surprise gift to see what I did. Without that maybe I'd have just thought it was kinda neat?

There's also the social aspect of being around like hundreds of people all seeing and experiencing the same thing amplifying the emotion. Could be lots of things besides being "broken!"