Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Not Quite a Total Solar Eclipse

Yesterday it was all about nature as she treated us to a total solar eclipse here. I thought I should grab the opportunity to get back to blogging.

With all the scary stories about the potential to damage your eyesight I will state upfront that I did not take any direct photos of the event. We were lucky enough to have a couple of pairs of the special glasses, courtesy of a friend who is a volunteer at the Udvar Hazy National air and Space Museum, but still, I was not taking too many chances.
 People had said to watch for nature using the trees as a "pin hole" camera. The crepe myrtle on the back deck was obliging in that respect.
 Toying with what to make this post about as I had very few photos my eyes lit upon another small miracle of nature; this self seeded petunia in the hibiscus pot and I let my glasses pose there momentarily.
 More crescent shadows. Alas, right at the central five minutes of totality (although, living where we do we were never going to have full totality) clouds rolled over the sun totally obscuring the big moment. But the clouds did keep breaking away for the second half of the main show and we were happy we got to see as much as we did of the big event.
 Much later in the day the sun was full on bright again.
The sunset almost passed un-noticed but I did see this last patch of color.

Now let's see if I can sort through the 500+ images on the photo card from our early August vacation before too much time passes.

2 comments:

  1. That's a great photo of the multiple eclipses seen through the lens of the crape myrtle. We didn't think to look at that. Our experience was also marred right at the totality by passing clouds - and we would have had a 99% coverage but we got to see much of the beginning and the end. For us, it was like late dusk, with the birds chirping as they do not do during the middle of the day, and the mosquitoes out hungry and in force, just as at nightfall. Looking forward to the vacation photos!

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  2. Good photos, I dont think we got to see anything like what you did from this far down in the antipodes!

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