It's Friday! Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain! Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.
The boys started back to school on Wednesday, and they seem to be having a great time with it so far. Zoe has also been getting good naps in since her brothers are away during the day, leaving the house pretty quiet.
The big event of this week was the solar eclipse. We drove down to Missouri for it, and boy was that an adventure. Weather forecasts called for a 30% chance of rain where we were planning to go, so of course it ended up raining like crazy. Fortunately, we'd budgeted in enough time to travel further south to escape the storms. It was an epic race to escape the cloud cover in time.
We eventually got to an area near I-70 where the clouds were thin and there was a visible blue patch of sky that looked like it might possibly be headed in our direction. Since totality was about twenty minutes away at that point, it looked like our best bet. We settled in a parking lot shared by a fireworks store and an adult book store (there were plenty of jokes forming in my head about that one) and set up our telescope. And as we'd hoped, just as totality began, the cloud cover cleared.
Since we had to drive further than anticipated, we didn't film nearly as much as I'd been hoping. By the time everything was set up and ready to go, totality was underway. Still, we did manage to get some of it recorded, and my husband edited our clips together into a short little video.
I'll say this about the experience. No video or picture can do it justice. During that moment of totality, there's a feeling in the atmosphere that you can't recreate. The world suddenly goes dark. Planets and stars are visible in the middle of the afternoon. There's a chill in the air as the radiant heat from the sun vanishes. And the corona shimmers and glows in a way that cameras can't seem to capture. It's one of the most amazing events I've ever experienced, and I'm already making plans to see the solar eclipse in April 2024.
What would you like to celebrate?
The video is really neat. We live a state north of where it was totality, and even though we had 94% coverage, it's incredible how much light still escapes the sun. It did get really dim in a eerie, dream-like way.
ReplyDeleteWe watched the eclipse an hour from home, what a great event!
ReplyDeleteYou're right about cameras not being able to capture certain things. I take less and less photos these days. I may take one or two...but I would rather just experience it.
ReplyDeleteI envy you the experience. Sounds fascinating. X
ReplyDeleteThat's cool you got to see it. I had 80% were I lived and it was great to watch and get some pics.
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome that you got to see the eclipse. I would've loved to, but wasn't feeling well. Your description is amazing and I'm glad you shared a snippet with us. Have a great night! Eva
ReplyDeletePictures aren't always able to capture the whole story.
ReplyDeletewww.ficklemillennial.com