Total Eclipse of the Sun (and the Heart)
Today, 8/21/2017, is the solar eclipse (Drink every time I say “eclipse”. Including that one.). The last time there was a solar eclipse visible across America
was 38 years ago!
Sadly, I am not in the path of totality, but at least I will still be able to experience the partial eclipse. I've been excited about this eclipse for weeks. My only regret is not finding any eclipse glasses to properly witness the event. If you didn’t know, it's very dangerous to look at the eclipse without specially designed eclipse glasses (except during total coverage). It's dangerous to ever look at the sun for extended periods of time anyway, but during the eclipse, the light is so magnified that you can become permanently blinded by it. (I wonder how many news reports there will be about people who didn’t heed the warnings and ended up blind. Hmm…) I don’t really need to look at it though. As I mentioned, I'm not in the path of totality, so I wouldn’t get the full experience anyway. I can look at pictures online, I'm sure. Instead, I'll be looking for the sky to become dark in the middle of the day and listening for sounds usually heard during the evening/night like crickets chirping and the evening songs of birds. Apparently, animals are fooled into thinking its actually night so they begin exhibiting their night time behaviors. I would say I hope the sky is clear, but I suppose it doesn’t matter much if I won't actually be looking up. But it would be cool to look up and see some stars in a twilight sky in the middle of the day. It's going to be almost 100 degrees today so I'll be watching from my living room window in the air conditioning (Hooray for A/C!).
Apparently, this is expected to be a huge event causing lots of Americans to migrate to the path of totality and clog up the roads with traffic and overload national parks and other viewing areas. It's good to know that the majority of Americans are as excited about space as I am. Part of me considered convincing drew to drive to Tennessee with me so we could see the full eclipse!
Sadly, I am not in the path of totality, but at least I will still be able to experience the partial eclipse. I've been excited about this eclipse for weeks. My only regret is not finding any eclipse glasses to properly witness the event. If you didn’t know, it's very dangerous to look at the eclipse without specially designed eclipse glasses (except during total coverage). It's dangerous to ever look at the sun for extended periods of time anyway, but during the eclipse, the light is so magnified that you can become permanently blinded by it. (I wonder how many news reports there will be about people who didn’t heed the warnings and ended up blind. Hmm…) I don’t really need to look at it though. As I mentioned, I'm not in the path of totality, so I wouldn’t get the full experience anyway. I can look at pictures online, I'm sure. Instead, I'll be looking for the sky to become dark in the middle of the day and listening for sounds usually heard during the evening/night like crickets chirping and the evening songs of birds. Apparently, animals are fooled into thinking its actually night so they begin exhibiting their night time behaviors. I would say I hope the sky is clear, but I suppose it doesn’t matter much if I won't actually be looking up. But it would be cool to look up and see some stars in a twilight sky in the middle of the day. It's going to be almost 100 degrees today so I'll be watching from my living room window in the air conditioning (Hooray for A/C!).
Apparently, this is expected to be a huge event causing lots of Americans to migrate to the path of totality and clog up the roads with traffic and overload national parks and other viewing areas. It's good to know that the majority of Americans are as excited about space as I am. Part of me considered convincing drew to drive to Tennessee with me so we could see the full eclipse!
Jessica-
Assuming you're on a plane and in the air when the eclipse
happens, write me a blog post about that lol. I hope it looks really cool and you
see some space in the middle of the day. Also have a nice trip :)
**UPDATE: The eclipse is largely unimpressive if you're not looking directly at it! It got gradually darker up to the peak. It looked like an overcast rainy day. Being as I'm so far from the path of totality, that's as dark as it got. It still looked neat being only slightly cloudy and still being that dark in the middle of the day, though. the temperature dropped about ten degrees and I did hear a chorus of crickets start up. The darkest part only lasted about a minute or two. It's still slowly getting sunny again. Jynx was most excited about the window being open. Drew was completely unimpressed by the whole thing lol. Mostly I just want it to rain now because the midday darkness felt like a false promise of thunderstorms.
The live feed of the eclipse is great. I'm glad I can still watch the eclipse online without having to damage my vision to see it. I am hearing all the sciency stuff about the eclipse and watching people cheer for the moon. That's my favorite part. People cheering for the moon. Or the sun, or whatever. It's just sort of a silly thing to do, it made me laugh. And it was funny hearing scientists shouting about ray structure and geeking out over the moon passing between the earth and the sun for a few tiny moments.
**UPDATE: The eclipse is largely unimpressive if you're not looking directly at it! It got gradually darker up to the peak. It looked like an overcast rainy day. Being as I'm so far from the path of totality, that's as dark as it got. It still looked neat being only slightly cloudy and still being that dark in the middle of the day, though. the temperature dropped about ten degrees and I did hear a chorus of crickets start up. The darkest part only lasted about a minute or two. It's still slowly getting sunny again. Jynx was most excited about the window being open. Drew was completely unimpressed by the whole thing lol. Mostly I just want it to rain now because the midday darkness felt like a false promise of thunderstorms.
The live feed of the eclipse is great. I'm glad I can still watch the eclipse online without having to damage my vision to see it. I am hearing all the sciency stuff about the eclipse and watching people cheer for the moon. That's my favorite part. People cheering for the moon. Or the sun, or whatever. It's just sort of a silly thing to do, it made me laugh. And it was funny hearing scientists shouting about ray structure and geeking out over the moon passing between the earth and the sun for a few tiny moments.
TTFN,
Paige 💜 🌟🌕🌞🌑🌌
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