What Are The Chances?
Totality
When you live about 40 miles south of the path of the Solar Eclipse’s Totality, it
makes sense to drive a little north.
And so, that’s what we did.
On Saturday August 19, husband and I scouted parking places
for the upcoming Solar event on Monday. $100.00 parking places? Nope. Crowds of
10,000, no again.
We found numerous
places close by the Corvallis Municipal
Airport, and in the path of almost 2 minutes of totality.
On Monday as we were in route up highway 99—it
was between 8 and 9 in the morning and not crowded-- my daughter, son-in-law and grandson ahead
of us called to say they found a place within close range of the airport,
a beautiful spot by trees, on grass, and with shade. Perfect--except for one
thing.
It was on private land.
The owner gave permission though, and it was there we met our family all
prepared with an ice chest of food. Other people, to the owner's dismay, joined us, and all were
respectful and left not a scrap.
Picture of the
sun through a hole in a paper
place projected on a white board. This is the
concept of a pin-hole camera.
The pilot of a light plane, his trail like chalk on a chalkboard, outlined the sun for us by
encircling it within our field of view.
Husband dear was intrigued at
finding a mylar balloon floating high above our heads, and apparently three
vultures did too, for three were
circling.
Dum de dum dum.
My naked eye couldn’t see the balloon, guess his
vision is better. I coulod see the vultures though, and I wondered if they thought they were coming to a barbaque.
The dark moon—invisible to
us until it began its sojourn across the
sun’s face began as a bite, a crescent, a half, three-quarters.
Eerie dim-darkness enveloped the countryside.
My husband set up a small telescope and this is
a picture taken with my phone/camera peeking through the lens.
The dogs didn’t want anything to do with this
event, and hid out in the vehicles. I wish they could tell us what they were
seeing or feeling.
I, too, felt off-kilter, a bit dizzy, but I thought perhaps it was because I was looking up so much. Don’t know. Sometimes we doubt our feelings. One reason people don’t have more other-worldly experiences.
We watched as the moon crept across the face of
Ra, and then El Whamo.
Awesome.
The sky blackened, the moon blocked out the sun,
we ripped off our glasses. And there it was, the corona.
Glorious.
The temperature dropped 20 degrees. It was unsettling
to feel how vulnerable we are, drop a
shade over the sun, and the result is immediate—darkness and cold. A star, thinking it was night, blinked. Whoops
it wasn’t night a minute and 50 some seconds later a crescent of Ra appeared. Put on glasses!
We toasted good old Ra’s return with
a glass of champagne.
Later on that day at a garden shop, I read “Our sun is the only
one known to grow vegetables.”
In the town of Corvallis
a woman came up to us and asked how the dogs fared.
She and her family drove up from Oakland California. She said it was probably
her only opportunity to witness such an event. Her husband said maybe it would
make him a better man, but he wasn’t noticing that happening. I said it was
accumulative, and would happen over time.
I feel that the eclipse was a pause for the earth. Maybe
we gave her a breather. Just think,
mother earth had a moment to collect her
wits while people stopped whatever racket, driving, yammering, computer
punching they were doing and looked up.
What are
the chances of seeing a total eclipse?
This was the first total eclipse to occur solely in the U.S. since our founding
fathers declared us a country.
The moon’s orbit takes it directly in between
the earth and the sun every 18 months or so, however, this one was unique for
it darkened populated areas, and not
in the middle of the ocean or a desert or some ice encrusted continent.
What are the chances that from our perspective
the sun and the moon are exactly the same
size?
The moon
is 1/400th the size of the sun and it is 400 times closer to us. (Eventually total
eclipses will be no more, for the moon is moving away from us at the rate of 1
½ inches per year. Rats.)
