Were You In The Path?

Taos Bubbe and I took our low chairs 

to the Mall at the Uof A, along  with hundreds of others,

for an Annular Eclipse Watch Party sponsored by the Flandreau Planetarium.  

There were scientists to answer questions and a long line to look through the fancy Flandreau telescopes.

Most of us took advantage of the $5 glasses with protective lenses.  There were instructions printed inside the left ear piece; one of them cautioned against more than 3 minutes of continuous use.  

I tried putting the glasses over the camera's lens in my phone; it registered a black screen.  So I put on the glasses and held the camera in a spot somewhere in front of my nose and clicked.

These two photos were taken at 8:31am, just as the moon was beginning to block the sun.

At 9:26am, the eclipse was about as complete as it was going to be.

We weren't privy to a full eclipse; ours was about 7/8ths .  It never got very dark, although it did get cooler, with no breeze or cloud cover to account for the subtle change.  

There was a scientist nearby, wearing a lab coat and an official looking badge, and I could have asked him if the temperature really did drop.  But I walked in the other direction, enjoying the mystery, wondering what the ancients thought as the sun began to disappear, and flashing to Bing Crosby using it to his advantage in Paramount Pictures' version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

It was a lovely morning.