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On Staring into the Sun, ii WELL, I CAN REPORT first hand that an annular eclipse is not the most exciting phenomenon in nature I have recently encountered; the beagle puppy I made out with the other day left more of a conscious impression. But hey, the sky was clear, and I showed up. Basically, the Sun felt like it was wearing sunglasses. It did not get dark; it got slightly dim and noticeably cool. If you were Magellan, this was not the eclipse to use to scare the natives into surrendering their territory and women, so I am glad I did not try to pull that trick as a return gesture to Spain. (However, I have a backup plan for later.) But in case you're wondering, we don't need to worry about this eclipse not having an astrological influence. In the right spot, a simple ordinary old fashioned New Moon can have a pretty big impact. This eclipse more than qualified for the right spot, at the right time, with the right collaborating influences. For my musical selection, I played "All You Need Is Love" as loud as my iPod would vibrate my brain. Quite a few people came out to the beach here in Valencia to see the event. For some reason, most of them seemed to be Brits. I caught a look at the Sun through someone's tin foil glasses at the exact moment of annularity. And it is was rather cool to see what an exact New Moon looks like. There was the Moon, right over the Sun, looking like the edge of the Sun was exposed by about an inch. We have got one report back from someone who looked into the Sun for a while, as a kid. It's from Greg, our Filemaker programmer on Vashon Island. Here is what he wrote a few minutes ago: Eric - when I was about ten, I stared into the sun until I could barely see. After I stopped cuz I feared I really was making myself blind, I could see just enough to find my way inside, and then my sight went away entirely for about 5 minutes. Then it came back over a period of about half an hour. Fortunately my parents weren't home, so they didn't have to freak out. So remember, don't step on firecrackers, especially if the fuse is lit. But if you do, make sure you're wearing your Armani sunglasses, so you look stylish when the thing goes off. From a photographic standpoint, I'm happy I went out at sunrise to get some pictures of that. One will be posted shortly. I also have a collection of newspaperish feature type pictures of people taking pictures of the eclipse on their cell phones through their tin foil sunglasses, and looking at it with expressions of mild amazement, etc., which photos I will spare you, unless one turns out particularly interesting. e | ||||||
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