Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Eclipse


Well, this is as close as we got to yesterday's eclipse -- watching it on the news. It didn't affect us at all here in London, and in fact even if it had passed directly overhead we wouldn't have seen it, because it was pretty cloudy.

But The New York Times has a feature that allows us to experience eclipse totality virtually, which is pretty cool. You can get to that by clicking here if, like me, you live in a non-eclipse zone.

My friend Liz was at her parents' house in South Carolina. "Their town was on the total black-out line," Liz wrote. "We lucked out with perfect weather. It started to get darker, the bugs were loud singing and we saw the diamond as the full eclipse ended. Too cool."

She sent some pictures of the little crescent-shaped shadows thrown by the eclipsed sun:



How wild is that? Somehow, in all this eclipse talk, I missed any word that it would change shadows. That blows my mind.

Anyway, as I said, none of that here in England.

Instead, Dave and I had a placid evening, sitting at home watching "The Sopranos." Now that we've finished "Mad Men" we needed a new series, and I've never seen "The Sopranos." So we're taking that on. The downside -- we have to buy it through Amazon, and there are six seasons, so it's a considerable expense! Probably worth it for my overall cultural edification, though.

11 comments:

Alphie Soup said...

That last photo makes it much clearer to me how the crescent shadows are formed. Amazing.

Alphie

Yorkshire Pudding said...

On the day of the eclipse Trump no longer said "America first... America first" in that irritatingly deliberate manner. Now like Dubya he's saying "Afghanistan first...". As history has shown, it is a war that can never be won. Loved the middle picture by Liz. Amazing.

crafty cat corner said...

Have you watched "Breaking Bad"?
We watched the last two episodes last night and now like you we have to find another series to keep us going. We loved "Madmen" and have the box set of "Sopranos", that's been watched twice now. My daughter goes mad about "House of Cards" not sure if we will like it but that's our next go to.
Briony
x

ellen abbott said...

I knew about the shadows but didn't think to look. 66% at peak here.

Ms. Moon said...

I think I may be the only person in the world for whom the eclipse was just one more anxiety-producing event.
The shadows were very cool though. That I can agree on.

John Going Gently said...

Bi have your queen!

Sharon said...

We had 62% coverage yesterday for the eclipse. I got to see it through some of the eclipse glasses that a co-worker brought to work. Pretty cool. My friends Julie & Dave are in Wyoming where it was total. They are eclipse followers. Dave sent an email with some photos last night. It sounds like they had perfectly clear skies for the event. Those shadows are amazing.

Anonymous said...

We were in the 85% range for the eclipse, but didn't get to see any of it. The fog was as thick as could be. At the moment of the full eclipse, it looked like dusk here. Then the light returned and it was still as foggy as ever. I love seeing the photos.

Lynne said...

We drove 2.5 hours north of where we live to get in to the totality zone. It was an experience I will never forget, staring at the sun's corona for two minutes. It never got totally dark, just a deep twilight with a 360 degree sunset. Complete and total silence, not a breath of wind, just as if the whole earth was holding its breath. Mystical and magical at the same time. Pics and story on our blog if you care to read.

As to the Sopranos, we missed too, and such a shame because when we first moved to NJ they were filming a segment right up the street from us and had the whole road blocked off.

Red said...

I had 80% eclipse. It was not spectacular as far as light was concerned. It did get cold.

The Bug said...

I was in a hospital room. We did see it get darker outside (we were in a 97% area). I guess I'm glad I had more important things going on or I would be pretty annoyed to have missed out.