Entry tags:
Hail the unconquered sun!
I live less than an hour's drive north of the zone of totality.
Brother wasn't interested in going out of his way and Mom is conserving her spoons for tomorrow's trip to Toronto (they watched the 99% eclipse from our backyard instead), but Dad and I went down to an arbitrary small town within the zone to watch.
It's pretty neat! I wouldn't trek across a continent for it, but it's nice to have the experience.
---
Mom asked me last night if I was excited. I've never really been one for excitement *prior* to events. Also I was worried that if I let myself get hyped up I'd just be more disappointed to find it cloudy.
(There won't be another total eclipse anywhere in Canada for about 20 years, and there won't be another within day-trip distance of here until the 22nd century.)
I awoke to a concerningly grey-white sky, but it cleared up in plenty of time.
---
We arrived forty minutes early, to give us a bit of time to poke around the shops and maybe try some food (though we eventually decided against this). The traffic was light, and the streets were not very crowded; there were enough knots of people with eclipse glasses scattered around to have some sense of solidarity, though. (I heard one person applauding during totality, and a dad excitedly giving his kids a science lesson.)
Excitement *prior* to events is not my style, but I did feel some giddiness as the light began to turn to "sunset".
---
From my perspective it was neat-but-not-overwhelmingly-emotional to look up and see the black sun with its corona, but like, if I did not know what was happening that would sure freak me the fuck out.
---
My phone, at least with its default camera settings (and I don't know which ones to tweak), was not up to the task of taking a picture of totality. I *did* get some pictures of the crescent sun, though. For example:
(I saw somebody else taking pictures by pointing his phone through his eclipse glasses, tried copying him, and was kind of surprised to find how well it worked. (Vastly better than last time.))
---
Thanks to blog reader Jenn for sharing her pack of eclipse glasses with us. <3
Brother wasn't interested in going out of his way and Mom is conserving her spoons for tomorrow's trip to Toronto (they watched the 99% eclipse from our backyard instead), but Dad and I went down to an arbitrary small town within the zone to watch.
It's pretty neat! I wouldn't trek across a continent for it, but it's nice to have the experience.
---
Mom asked me last night if I was excited. I've never really been one for excitement *prior* to events. Also I was worried that if I let myself get hyped up I'd just be more disappointed to find it cloudy.
(There won't be another total eclipse anywhere in Canada for about 20 years, and there won't be another within day-trip distance of here until the 22nd century.)
I awoke to a concerningly grey-white sky, but it cleared up in plenty of time.
---
We arrived forty minutes early, to give us a bit of time to poke around the shops and maybe try some food (though we eventually decided against this). The traffic was light, and the streets were not very crowded; there were enough knots of people with eclipse glasses scattered around to have some sense of solidarity, though. (I heard one person applauding during totality, and a dad excitedly giving his kids a science lesson.)
Excitement *prior* to events is not my style, but I did feel some giddiness as the light began to turn to "sunset".
---
From my perspective it was neat-but-not-overwhelmingly-emotional to look up and see the black sun with its corona, but like, if I did not know what was happening that would sure freak me the fuck out.
---
My phone, at least with its default camera settings (and I don't know which ones to tweak), was not up to the task of taking a picture of totality. I *did* get some pictures of the crescent sun, though. For example:
(I saw somebody else taking pictures by pointing his phone through his eclipse glasses, tried copying him, and was kind of surprised to find how well it worked. (Vastly better than last time.))
---
Thanks to blog reader Jenn for sharing her pack of eclipse glasses with us. <3