Solar Eclipse: look down to see it!

Normally, I pull Amanda out of bed each morning and drag her up the mountain for...well... “a little” exercise and alone time to talk. However, this morning Alex woke us both up with all sorts of glee and excitement. She usually sleeps, but this time she took me, Amanda and Yunji up the mountain to see the solar eclipse!

The last solar eclipse I remember witnessing was back when I was a freshman in college. I don’t know how many people get to see more than one solar eclipse in their life time. I started to look up information on that, but...most scientists give too much information...let me know the answer if you feel like digging through the mounds of scientific data on the web.

I will try to be short and sweet here...


Anyway, what is it that we are really looking for? I don’t have the exact answer, but it is not the eclipse itself. I believe it is the feeling we get witnessing such a dramatic event and sharing that event with others. Sometimes we spend too much time on the data and lose sight of the beauty and sense of community that surrounds us.


So, when we got up to the top of the mountain we encountered a group of middle school children and their teachers. They had brought special sun glasses so that they could view the eclipse...


...and were recording the event as classroom project. How cool is that!


We had brought pinholed pieces of card board because that is what I remember doing when I was in elementary school.

They saw us struggling with the make-shift equipment and lent us a pair of glasses. Nice...! The glasses work much better

...but I remember something about viewing the shadow through the pinhole...oh well...



Then the sky started to darken...everyone ooowed and aaawed...



But we had not really made a connection to the group of children on the mountain...yet...


Then we noticed something peculiar. If you looked under the trees, there were thousands of tiny crescent shaped shadows on the ground. The shadows were everywhere! The 4 of us started making shadows with our hands to see if that would work too...


One of the kids looked over at what Alex was doing and said “Wow! I just saw Harry Potter, you’re a wizard like him!” Soon afterward everyone was in a circle with us making shadows.


They all tried to see who could make the coolest shadow. Yes...Alex was a show off!


And so, the connection was made and the true reason we had all come to witness the eclipse was complete.


When we got back to the Lee’s even Austin thought it was cool...