Totality

Sean and I realized years ago that there would be a total solar eclipse viewable from the states and vowed that we would witness it. Sean and I both love anything space-related. A total solar eclipse is like astronomy's Super Bowl. Cannot be missed.

And here we are, living in Colorado, close but not close enough. But, yea verily, Kyle's family had just moved to Kansas, a mere hour from totality. So despite having to miss two days of class, just a week into the schoolyear, to Kansas we went for a long weekend. We had a nice few days there but I only took pictures on eclipse day, ha!

We weren't sure how the weather was going to play out so we just kind of went in a northerly direction and found a place to wait it out. Pompa (who also came for the eclipse but he was also there to soon help take care of kids because Lindsay was about to leave to go donate a kidney (!) to her cousin. She's all sorts of incredible) pulled out a surprise- bubble blowers! That kept the kids entertained (and sticky) for a long while.








(ha ha!)





(heehee!)







We decided we needed to go a bit more north and ended up at a park, where we picnicked and watched, through our eclipse glasses, the moon sneak in front of the sun.


Pompa brought a square of welders glass that made a nice, albeit green, filter for the camera. Eclipse photos all by Sean.

I was really impressed that the glasses allowed you to see the sun's shape even through a bit of cloud cover. But, boy, did we want that cloud cover to leave! And it did! We played and peaked and played and peaked and soon that sun turned into a sliver. We watched and watched that sliver thin until it winked out. Then, ripping off the glasses, we were met with the most glorious sight.


I don't know how the change from a small ball of light to a small ball of darkness surrounded by light could impact my soul so deeply. The light cascading out from behind the moon, the twilight-like atmosphere around us, the skyline rosy as sunset in a full circumference, it just ignited my heart.

And everyone else thought it was just as amazing! The kids were gasping in shock and awe. Though just as I pulled out my phone to record them, a group nearby started singing Happy Birthday, which made them all pause with confusion.

I videoed after that, so it wasn't their initial amazement but you still get the idea. Plus, eclipse time was limited so I wasn't paying too much attention to my recording!

Then after two minutes and some change, a pinpoint of direct light returned and totality was over. But we sure kept talking about it! For minutes and hours and days and months! It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever witnessed and I'm so glad we made the effort. A total solar eclipse!

And you know what? A half hour later, the clouds were so thick we couldn't even see the sun. Boy howdy, we were grateful for its delay!