Eclipse

Yesterday's annular eclipse was pretty spectacular. I'd been geeking out about it for weeks. The last solar eclipse I vaguley remember was way back in in elementary school. I don't remember much. I recall the eerie half twlight, a box viewer over my head, and the lemonade my then teacher (Hi Mrs. Bassett!) provided us. Since annular eclipses are rare, I wanted to be sure my children had some sort of muddled memory of their mother peering into a cheerio box while they rode their bikes in the orangy glow of the eclipse.

I started by explaining the mechanics of a solar eclipse, artfully illustrated with the help of an apple, an orange and a ping pong ball. I gave a stern warning about looking directly at the eclipse....maybe too stern. My daughter cried for twenty minutes and refused to go outside because she was afraid she would go blind. Ooops.

After calming her down, we upcycled a cheerio box and a bit of almunium foil to make a pinhole viewer. It worked beautifully and both children were able to see the moon cross in front of the sun.
We were located a little far south to see the famed "ring of fire" but the moon did cover about three quarters of the sun.

My cousin Jacki, who is located in New Mexico, had a better view of the eclipse. I just had to share these awesome photos she took!

Just amazing....absolutely amazing!