Monday, August 21, 2017

Eclipse Day

Today was the day the kids have been talking about and looking forward to for weeks. We've been discussing eclipses, what they are, why they're rare, and what to expect. Over the weekend, my mom and I made "kid-proof" eclipse masks out of certified glasses, paper plates, scotch tape and elastic cords. I didn't want to take any chances with their eyes, but I wanted them to experience the eclipse in person. It's an exciting, amazing, rare phenomenon!


It was fun that my mom was here to experience it, too. MJ came home from work to see it with us. And we received frequent texts from my dad (on Priest Mountain in Virginia today), telling us what he was seeing. The kids were surprisingly good about keeping their masks on properly, but with my mom's help, we had one-to-one supervision of each child, just in case. We went in and out of the house multiple times to see the different phases of the eclipse. "It looks like a nilla wafer with a bite out of it!" "Now it looks like a crescent moon!"


Although we were not in the Path of Totality, there was a noticeable dimness during the peak of the eclipse. Inside the house, it was similarly dark to when dark storm clouds roll over the sun -- although the sun was shining brightly outside. Crickets chirped noisily, like they do at dusk. And the shadows on the ground had crescent-shaped light patterns around them, which was really interesting and unexpected.


As the final minutes of the eclipse ticked by, CC, Memere and I watched from the back yard. Just as the moon finally passed from the sun, clouds obscured the sun completely. What perfectly amazing timing! There weren't any clouds during the entire three-hour eclipse, and just as it ended, cloud cover moved in. Thank goodness we were able to see and enjoy the eclipse without an obscured view!

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