It has been 38 years since the US last saw a total solar eclipse and almost 100 years since an eclipse has crossed the entire continent. My town of Columbia, MO was one of the lucky handful of cities that lie in the “umbra” or path of the eclipse, which is also being called the Great American Eclipse. I don’t really remember the last solar eclipse, but Monday I got to experience this solar eclipse. AMAZING, was the exact first word that came out of my mouth during today’s.
Our office closed for 3 hours in order for us to observe and participate in eclipse activities. We walked around FoodStock for a little while, but it was a rather hot and humid day and it wasn’t long before we headed back to a shady spot close to the office.
I set up my pinhole projector, which actually ended up having 2 pinholes (OOPS! 2 eclipses projected!) I know it doesn’t look so pretty, but it did it’s job! It was like watching the eclipse on TV but with a much smaller image.
As we got closer to totality, the atmosphere began to change. The air got cooler, and it gradually began to get darker, dusk-like outside.
There was one point when the crickets, locusts, and cicadas began chirping quite loudly as if night were coming, then all at the same moment, they fell silent. We should have been able to see a 360 degree sunset, but it was really more of 180 degrees for us due to the slight cloud cover. The sunset to the west was very pretty. It was kind of weird when all the dusk-to-dawn street lights began lighting up–this was early afternoon.
At totality, it was safe to remove our eclipse glasses and look around. It was almost as dark as night and rather eerie since it was the middle of the day. I didn’t really get a good pic of totality because I was completely overwhelmed and awed at observing the moment. Talk about an awesome phenomenon to get to experience in my lifetime! This was a most humbling event to experience.
If you ever get the chance to check out a solar eclipse, do it. Now I’m eager to find another Eclipse coming to a place near me (my husband will love to hear that). I would really like to catch another eclipse again!
Travel tidbits from my life