Eclipse

We're not the kind of people that would have gone chasing an eclipse, but as it came right to us, we had the joy of seeing it in person.  The older kids, especially Kate, were very excited.

 

We bought our glasses more than a month in advance (checked them against NASA's list when we heard there were ones that weren't safe) and built a pin hole camera.

As the day wore on we had clouds pass in front of the sun fairly regularly and we thought we might miss the show.

I'd done a little research, so we knew that a tree, with all it's leaves and branches could act as multiple pin hole cameras.  You can see the crescent shapes here (with Ellie, of course)

 

Even with most of the sun covered, you couldn't tell a difference in the light (This was taken over my head--it took a lot of tries to get, not wanting to look directly at it!),

 

and wouldn't have noticed it without the special glasses (This one was taken with the glasses over the lens).  The little crescent is all that is exposed of the sun.

Here is a view with the pin hole camera, the previous three were all taken within a minute of one another.

 

A few minutes before the totality the light was odd--somewhat like dusk, but the shadows were all wrong, as the sun was high in the sky.  The kids were standing right next to a tree when a bat took off.

Then, suddenly it was dark.  We could hear a collective gasp from the neighbors, especially from the group at the house behind us where they must have been having a party.

 We could see the corona around the moon--my camera was overwhelmed by that little ring of light and I didn't get a good picture of it at all.  After our eyes adjusted we could see stars and planets.  As quickly as it came, we could see the light begin pouring out again, and it was over.


 The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
                                    -Psalm 19:1

Kristy