Look up!

Image credit: NASA

Today was amazing.

For those reading after today (though it’d still be a today, just not my today…), I’m talking about the today that was August 21, 2017. I’m talking about the today where there was a total solar eclipse.

As I said, today was amazing.

Title text: I was thinking of observing stars to verify Einstein’s theory of relativity again, but I gotta say, that thing is looking pretty solid at this point. Image credit: xkcd

There’s some cool scientific stuff, like how the Moon has both 1/400th the diameter of the sun and is 400 times closer to the Earth than the Sun so it blocks it out perfectly, or seeing the Sun’s corona. But honestly, when you look at it (with your trusty eclipse glasses on, of course) your jaw drops and you stare. At least, that’s what I did.

Interestingly enough, it almost didn’t work out.

This morning, it was cloudy and raining. We didn’t drive to Kansas City like we’d hoped to, because the weather forecast showed it’d be cloudy there too. Late morning came around and it was still cloudy and drizzly, though there were patches of light here and there — though not where the Sun was. So we got in the car and started driving around, and then we noticed — it was kind of bright!

We quickly pulled into a parking lot, noticing another car was doing the same, and quickly pulled out our glasses and saw our first glimpse of the eclipse. It only a second or two, because the clouds quickly covered it. After a quick laugh with the people in the other car, we drove off again. We saw people on the way on the side of the road, at exits, in parking lots, all waiting, watching, and smiling.

We came to an exit that seemed a lot less cloudy, and there we watched. I really can’t describe it — I’m not a good enough wordsmith. But we watched the Moon eat away at the Sun, the confused streetlights flicker on and off, and everything grow dimmer.

We didn’t get to see full totality, but we came pretty close, and it was something I won’t forget. As Wendy Mass put it in her young adult book Every Soul a Star (which is well worth reading), “If this could be repeated every day for a year, I would never budge from where I stood.”

The next total eclipse in the U.S. of A. will be in 2024. I’m already looking forward to it. By then, I’ll be in college (!) but just as excited as I am now. Hopefully you are too.

So in advance — I’m wishing you all clear skies.