Did you get a chance to look up at the sun and see it partially blocked? Or were you lucky enough to live in the totality zone or did you plan well-ahead of time and travel to see the total eclipse?
If you read this blog regularly, then you know that I looked up what time the maximum eclipse would occur in Los Angeles, so I had 10:21 a.m. in mind for eclipse viewing. But around 9 a.m., I wandered into the backyard to see where I should prepare to view and to test out my glasses—and to my surprise the eclipse had already started! The sun already had a little bite-sized piece blacked out.
Somehow, with all of life's other distractions, it hadn't occurred to me that there would be almost a two-hour span where I could watch the eclipse as the moon passed in front of the sun. So I sat down, with my dog keeping me company, and just stared at the little orange blob in the sky. And in the same way as I'm often surprised when I notice clouds moving, the eclipse was happening quickly, I just sat and watched the moon move in front of the sun.
The universe is so big that we often don't think about the big picture. We we forget, for example, that we are constantly moving. We are so busy and distracted most of the time, we forget how small we are and how quickly things are happening.
I had the news playing on my phone, and it was amazing to listen to the reactions of people across the country as they experienced the eclipse.
If you were in the path of totality, the experience of the eclipse was pretty spectacular. Hopefully, everyone watched some television footage of it. The sun became a miniscule sliver, then the sky went black. And, for a moment, people were holding their breath and wondering if the sun would ever return. And then they saw a burst of light as the corona, the fiery atmosphere of the sun creating a silhouette of the moon, became visible. Then there was another burst of light as the edge of the sun became visible and then, once again, people saw the crescent shape as the eclipse passed.
People reacted with so much emotion and jubilation. We all were able to recapture some childish wonder. The groups of people I saw on the news would become hushed and then excitedly react with ooh's and aah's when the corona appeared.
It was like the ultimate magic show.
Because it is magical.
And it's something that we as a species have shared with our ancestors for thousands of years.
Today, we know the science behind the eclipse. Imagine the experience of people who didn't know the cause of such a phenomenon, for whom eclipse was truly magical—and likely scary.
For me, even though we only got around 80% of totality, it was still a special experience. It gave me an opportunity to think about the earth's tiny place in the universe. And I loved how, with all the other nonsense happening in the world right now, people all over this country and the world stopped to share an experience that was bigger than us.
I hope everyone had a chance to at least take a moment to experience it!
So what was your experience? Share with us how it made you feel!
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