Eclipse Report
Well, we didn’t see the eclipse “in person,” as it was overcast all night. We did, however, notice that the clouds were a funny, reddish colour, and then we found several webcasts. We settled down with a dual screen: one webcast from the Canary Islands, and another from Oslo. It was fascinating to watch … in fact, we learned more about the eclipse by watching it online, I think.
The most interesting thing was seeing the moon as it came out of totality, and seeing the reflected light return. In the webcast from Oslo, the light began appearing on the northwest edge of the moon’s surface first. In the webcast from the Canary Islands, the light began appearing from the eastern edge first. I’m guessing it’s because of the angle at which the eclipse was viewed from those locations.
We had fun learning why the eclipse happens, too. I took a flashlight, and onion, and a coconut shell, and showed the children how the moon and earth move into and out of each other’s shadows. They had a blast with that!
In any case, even though we were disappointed not to see it in person, we had a great time watching last night.