Total Eclipse of the . . . Sun

I just wanted to take the chance to share an astrological wonder with all of our North American viewers who didn't get a chance to see this. On Jan 15, there was a solar eclipse visible in Kenya, around 8:00 in the morning. One of the short termers had mentioned this fact to me, but I forgot until that morning, when, although there were no clouds, the light seemed a little funny. The last time I saw a solar eclipse was as a freshman in high school in Fort Wayne, IN--we all went outside during the lunch hour with our index cards w/ holes poked in them so we could look at the eclipse safely. I remember interesting shadows, and admonitions that if we looked directly at the eclipse, we'd most likely go blind.

So again, the first thing I noticed, other than the odd light, were the interesting shadows. This is the front of our house, and the sun shining through a nearby tree. Note the elliptical marks instead of regular shadows.

Our househelper Ruth showed up about this time and said to me, "The sun is bad this morning." There's some truth in that funny statement. The light was dim and it was colder than normal. Throwing caution to the wind (who needs their vision anyhow) I donned some sunglasses and tried to look at the eclipse, but all I saw was sun. Some of the home school kids had better luck though, as you can see below, with special viewing glasses. What a great science day! So, maybe in another 20 years, we'll be on some other continent and get this lucky again.