Tuesday, June 11, 2002


Partial Annular Solar Eclipse

Absolutely cool! I'm watching it right now and it never fails to amaze me. I've got a welding glass that allows me to look at it safely. I've never seen and experienced a totality before, and I'm not sure that I will. The only way for me to see a totality is if I go chase after one years down the road.

This reminds me of a strange story back in college. I remember 2 partial solar eclipses that occurred for the duration of my college years. In the first occurence, I brought a bunch of negatives with me to class so I could show the eclipse to my classmates, many of them weren't aware that one was going on. All of them of course, were amazed, except one. I gave the bunch of negatives to my friend and asked her to look at the sun through them. She looked, paused for a moment and looked at me with what I could consider 'fear' in her eyes. She said, "How did you do that?" And she was serious too! I couldn't believe it. I explained to her that it was an eclipse and that it naturally happens once in a while. That I know when it will happen because scientists are able to compute when one happens by measuring the rotation of the earth, sun and moon. It didn't seem to ease her fears about it though.
Posted by at