The solar eclipse yesterday was more interesting than I expected! The sun was only 73% eclipsed in our area, but one of John's coworkers took this great photograph as a reflection from their office building. I was afraid to attempt any direct photos of the sun myself and thought this was a clever way to do it.
My experience at 2:30 pm yesterday bordered on wondrous. I went outdoors with my pinhole projector, but ended up not even using it after I saw the shadows filtered through the natural pinholes created by the leaves on our oak trees.
The photos don't really do them justice, but the shadows were fascinating to me as I ran around taking photos of the driveway and patio. I did manage to find the one person that may not have heard about the eclipse when my neighbor asked what I was doing. I excitedly told him to look at the shadows that the eclipse was creating, and he said he just thought the diminished light meant it was going to shower, then went back to cleaning his grill. I thought he was crazy for not being more excited, and he thought I was a little nuts for taking photos of shadows, but to each his own!
Last night, NOVA had a really educational program that I wish could have seen before the eclipse. I haven't watched the whole thing (I may have fallen asleep because some guy was blabbering beforehand and NOVA started late), but I'll be re-watching on line. They talked about astronomers being able to study the sun's corona during the eclipse as the main reason for its importance, used some pretty good graphics to illustrate how and why eclipses happen (or not), and discussed science that sounded almost like science fiction. All things I never learned, didn't know, or may have forgotten, but it was incredibly informational and intriguing!
Looks like you had a terrific eclipse experience!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! The skies cleared somewhat about 10 minutes before the eclipse. I like your photos of the eclipse through the leaves, we had too much cloud cover to see that, but we got a similar effect using a colander. I was out last night, but will put that NOVA episode on my watch list!
ReplyDeleteI watched the crescents in the shadows, too. I was delighted by them. Our neighbor had glasses (good ones) and we had a box with a pinhole and a colander. It was fun! We had an impromptu neighbor party! Our eclipse experience was 92% and many friends went to Idaho for the full experience. Two of my sibs went to Omaha to visit another sib and the sun came out from the clouds just at the corona. It was a great day all around my world. Glad you got to see the crescents, too!!
ReplyDeleteYou got some great shots Bonny! It was pretty much overcast by me, but at the crucial moment the clouds parted and we were able to see a crescent shaped sun. It didn't get as dark as I had expected, but it was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteI likewise tried to watch the NOVA program and I likewise fell asleep thanks to the cheeto-in-chief. I will be watching it online today also! I like you was entirely enthralled with the shadows and the process of the eclipse. Boo on your neighbor for being a spoil sport. My neighbors, like the cheeto, looked directly at the sun... that's right, the entirety of their family!
ReplyDeleteI loved watching the eclipse through multiple devices! Your eclipse-in-the-leaves photos are just wonderful. What a fun way to spend an afternoon! XO
ReplyDeleteIt was way too cloudy here to see anything except that it got very dark here, like there was an impending storm, then it started to rain. Bummer, but nevertheless, we enjoyed it. Your pictures are a way to see it that I wouldn't have thought about.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry it was too cloudy. :-( To be honest, I didn't care much about what was happening in the sky because I was so fascinated by the shadows on the ground. Hopefully you can see something during a future eclipse.
DeleteI have a photo very much like your tree crescents, as well as one of a little girl with a crochet hat - the little holes in her hat were creating projections of the eclipse, too. You'll be happy to hear that there were at least a couple hundred folks gathered by the campus observatory to celebrate the natural world. It was such a fun time!
ReplyDeleteI think it was an absolutely fabulous day and I'm glad you got to enjoy it! Here's to 2024! :-)
ReplyDeleteI watched on NASA's YouTube channel -- it was fun to see astronauts & scientists get SO EXCITED!!
ReplyDelete