Eclipse Party, Totally

For Mother's Day, my sweetheart Jaaromy got me a solar filter for our telescope.  It wasn't exactly easy.  I had known that the eclipse was coming up and so I told him I wanted a solar filter for Mother's Day several months ago.  I did sort of have to remind him, but only barely.  So, he got to work ordering it but with all the solar events coming up, solar filters were somewhat scarce.  Jaaromy decided to look on Ebay and we found exactly the right size.  I was feeling desperate and told Jaaromy that I was willing to pay up to $200 if we were to get into a bidding war.  I knew that was a lot, too much really, but the idea of missing the eclipse was just too much.  Turns out, there was no bidding war and we ended up paying slightly less than we would have had we gone through normal channels.  Even after we won the bid, I was a little stressed that it wouldn't come on time.  Luckily, it all worked out and we got the filter in good shape and in plenty of time for the eclipse.  Brigham and I also went to the planetarium and stood in a long line to get some solar viewers.  I ended up getting five, but I felt guilty since the line was so long and there was a limited amount.  Oh well.

The eclipse was on a Sunday and Jaaromy was teaching Gospel Doctrine that day and so he told everyone in the class to come over and take a look through our telescope.  I would feel bad if there was someone who wanted to see it but didn't know where to go.  I was actually a little surprised at how many people showed interest, so I had no idea how many people to expect.  I also texted all my siblings to let them know they were welcome.  Only Chris took me up on the offer though.

It was also the 3rd Sunday of the month when we have dinner with Jaaromy's family.  We stayed until just before the eclipse was going to start, but we left a solar viewer with them so they would be able to watch it.  Unfortunately, it was getting cloudy!  Some of our neighbors were coming over in spite of the clouds, but it wasn't clearing up.  Jaaromy was anxious about it and felt that it was somehow his fault, but we figured at least we had fun visiting with our neighbors.  It was frustrating to know what was going on behind the clouds but not be able to see it.

Then, right at the peak of the eclipse the clouds started to move away and we were finally able to see the sun.  Everyone was so excited.  The solar viewers were passed around and everyone got a chance to see it through the telescope.

It's actually an annular eclipse, which means that the moon is too far away to cover the whole sun.  If we had gone farther south we could have seen the "Ring of Fire", but we only got a crescent.  That's okay though.  It was so fun to share it with our friends and family.

We have a camera that goes directly into the telescope but it would have been way too zoomed in.  I was able to set up my regular camera and put a solar viewer in front of it to get these pictures.

 During an eclipse, the sun casts strange shadows.  This is the shadow of our peach tree.

Between making sure the telescope was aligned, taking pictures of the sun, and taking a look myself that I didn't think to take pictures of the people who were there.  Thankfully, our neighbors, the Farnsworth's, took some and were happy to share.

It ended up being such a fun evening.  I sometimes wish that I could have gone farther south to get a picture of the "Ring of Fire", but I don't think I would trade the fun we had with our friends and family for anything.