A Wonder in the Heavens

The whole country was excited - it had been since 1979 that a total eclipse passed over the United States.  And this one was going coast to coast!  That hasn't happened since 1918.  Thousands of people drove into the path of where the total eclipse would cross.  For us at our house we were going to get only around 80% but that was still pretty cool.  And then I discovered that I had the afternoon of the eclipse off already for an appointment.  And during most of the time of the eclipse I was open.  My appointment wasn't until late afternoon.

Of course, as soon as the long range forecast reached the day of the eclipse everybody was checking the weather, including me.  Unfortunately, our forecast called for rain at first but did improve to partly cloudy.  We could hope.

On the morning of the eclipse, as I was driving to work, it was not looking very promising.  It was more like the sky was patchy rather than the clouds.  But the weather can change.  After all, lots of places say, "If you don't like the weather wait a few minutes."  We say that here, too.

When I got off at noon the cloud cover was a little thinner.  That was a good sign.  So I drove to where I had decided to watch and parked to wait for the time.

I  had actually printed out a card from NASA to make a "pin-hole viewer" but when the eclipse got started and the clouds thinned out it turned out near perfect.  The holes in the clouds would come and go and the effect was to filter the sunlight to a point that I was able to look right at it some of the time and get a pretty nice view.

Of all the pictures I took some actually turned out pretty good!  I was pleased.

Then I went to my appointment.  When I came out a couple hours later the clouds had filled back in and the sun was mostly hidden again.  But for a little while, at the right time, it was pretty spectacular!  It was amazing!