When I was in elementary school I remember our teachers pulling the welding helmets out and creating pin hole boxes for us to watch a solar eclipse. It’s one of those events in child’s life that you don’t forget. When driving home it bugged me that I couldn’t look at the sun, even though the event was over. In reality we are not suppose to look at the sun anytime. The solar event today was even more special.
This was the first total solar eclipse to occur in the United States in 99 years. We don’t live in an area of 100% totality, but it was still a great sight and experience for my daughter. Johanna goes to school at 10:30 a.m. every weekday. So she got to witness the event right before she had to go to class. So Jolene created a bunch of crafts for her to experience the event.
I pulled out our welding glass for her to take a peak at the sun. Jolene created a pinhole box for her to see the sun’s image on the ground. She also poked a bunch of holes to create the term “Great American Solar Eclipse” with a bunch of little eclipses as well as a heart. We walked around the yard for Johanna to see all the little eclipses that appear in the shadows of the trees. We also searched for items that had holes in them to see how big of a eclipse shadow we could make on the ground. It was at that point Johanna got excited and interested in the event.
I hope she remembers this event like I did when I was a child. If not, in 7 years we will have another one. We will make sure we are in the shadow of 100% totality. Maybe then she will also understand the phenomena much more.
Normally I pull out the camera to capture an event like this. Years ago I took photos of the last partial solar eclipse. This time, I didn’t have the right gear to capture it the way I had intended. in 2024 I will probably rent a longer zoom, and other filters to get a better image. I’ll have 7 years to plan for that one. Below are photos that we did take though.
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