So Cool

Back on February 26, 1979, there was a Total Solar Eclipse that was not only visible from North America, but from right here in Washington. This is one of the times where it totally paid off that my dad was an engineer, because he felt it was important enough to take the whole family over to the east side of the state to get a better view of it. I never knew until today when I researched it a little bit, but he took us pretty close to the optimal viewing location! (click here for a NASA map showing the eclipse path crossing through SE Washington) At the time, I thought it was great to not only miss school (it was a Monday), but to also get to see something that I was told wouldn’t happen again for many years.. I didn’t even remember how many years, because it seemed so far off. I looked it up today, and the next Total Solar Eclipse viewable in the NW United States is going to be in 2044. THAT made me even more appreciative of my dad’s dedication to exposing his kids to cool scientific stuff.

I still vividly remember standing out in the barren desert with my grandparents and several aunts, uncles and cousins, all of us using our special sunscopes (cardstock with a round hole and a mylar sheet in the middle) anxiously waiting for the eclipse to happen. When it did, the shadow of the moon came sweeping across the land, like nothing I’ve ever seen before or since… And the sun hung there in the sky, all blacked out except for a glorious corona around the blacked out center. It seemed to stay that way for a really long time, but according to Wikipedia, it was just under three minutes. Then the moon started to shift to the right, and a few minutes later the shadow swept out as fast as it had come in, leaving a disappointingly regular winter day in the desert.

When we got back to my grandparents’ house, one of the local TV stations was running video of the eclipse, with the brilliant corona looking just like it had in real life, only smaller. The rest of the day had that let-down feeling of Christmas day after all the presents have been opened and played with… especially since we had to get back in the van and drive home for school the next day. It was pretty cool being the only kid in my class who got to see it in person though! And like I said, now knowing that the next one is still 36 years away, I’m even more awe-struck that I got to be there.

All of which leads me to last night’s lunar eclipse. Seems like they’re much more common, but still very cool. And despite hearing news reports from all the national outlets bemoaning that weather conditions were going to render it invisible, in my little corner of the world, we had crystal clear skies, and the blood-red moon was hanging right off our front porch! I took a few pictures, and learned that I really need a tripod to do any serious night sky photography… So here’s the best of the pics, I’m sure it’s not as nice as the ones elsewhere on the web, but hey, that’s because I took it!