August 21, 2017 - total solar eclipse! The first in 99 years to pass from coast to coast in the U.S.
I knew the solar eclipse was coming - who could possibly miss it with all the press! - but it still took me by surprise. Somehow I missed the memo on the solar viewing glasses and there were absolutely none to be had on short notice. So day of, we made our own solar viewers!
The girls were very excited about the project:
Abigail was on the floor throwing a fit for the first half (I can't remember about what), but finally calmed down and joined in the fun of making and decorating her box!
Finishing touches involved lots of stickers and markers!
We watched online as the first town in Oregon experienced totality. I think in Lubbock we had about 70-ish percent?
The only problem was the sky was totally overcast! We worried we wouldn't be able to see anything!
Literally 2 mins before our max eclipse the clouds parted just enough for us to see it!
The boxes worked great and no ones retinas were destroyed! The girls were under VERY strict instructions to not look at the sun directly and were very good about keeping their backs to it. At first, I only let them come out one at a time, so I could make sure they were obeying, but they did so well, I let them all come out for a minute.
Once Halle and Abigail had seen it, they quickly lost interest and headed back inside, but Eve and I stayed! It was so neat to see!
I tried to take a picture with my cell phone - you can see the cloud cover, but can't really tell that the sun is at all covered. Certainly doesn't look like 72% even though I took this during the max of our eclipse.
That afternoon, we finished off our celebrations with eclipse cookies! Thank you, Oreo! Delicious and educational! ;)
The U.S.'s next total eclipse passes through Texas - counting down to 2024!
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