Total Eclipse of the Heart

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there was a total solar eclipse in North America yesterday. And while I wasn’t passionate enough to get myself into the path of totality, I wasn’t about to miss out on the 80% that I was going to see.

This weekend I used a mineral-based subtance to build a piece of astronomical observation equipment.

(I made an eclipse viewer.)

The eclipse started at 1:21 pm and ended at 4:01pm. I made sure my laptop was charged up and then moved my “home office” to my backyard lawn chair. The eclipse viewer was pretty effective.

But then my next-door neighbor popped her head over the fence with an extra pair of eclipse glasses, and it made a big difference. (I love my neighbors.) They were kid size but who cares?

I put the glasses over my iPhone camera and got this lovely shot.

And then this goofball hopped up and demanded attention.

Here are my eclipse observations:

As a connoisseur of sunshine, I could definitely tell something was up with the quality/quantity of light as we approached totality.

It was cloudy, but that was okay. I think if I were outside in full sun from 1:20-4:01 I would have melted. Plus, it made it easier to look up without the glasses on, if I were stupid enough to have done that.

I thought I was prepared for the birds to stop chirping mid-day, but I really wasn’t. That was pretty darn eerie.

The sun and moon appeared perfectly round. I find comfort in perceived perfection these days.

Our trees weren’t in good position to take the neat crescent-shaped shadows that I saw in others’ pictures.

A++ would eclipse again. Bring on 2024!