日食 part 2

When I woke up on July 22, 2009 the sky was full of heavy, low, dark clouds. I thought for sure they'd never clear up in time to see any part of the total solar eclipse. I quickly got dressed and biked to work so I could be outside if it did clear up. On the way downtown I saw lots of people just standing on the street looking up. I guess everyone really want to get a glimpse of the eclipse!

According the Japan-guide website we were supposed to see most of the eclipse between 11:10 and 11:13. As I ran into my building the sky looked like it was thinning out. I did some lesson planning for 30 minutes while keeping an eye on the weather. Around 11 there were some blue patches, so I grabbed 2 white sheets of paper, a pencil, and my camera. I read that if I put a pen sized hole in one paper and held it over another piece of paper, I'd be able to trace the shape of the eclipse. That was a total bust, but not because it was too cloudy. There were times when the sky was completely clear, and if someone had been there with me I'd have been able to trace it. But holding a paper and tracing doesn't work so well. However, when the sky was totally clear, the sun was still to bright to look at.

There was a breeze that would blow thin sheets of clouds across the sky, and during these times I was able to look directly at the sun and see the eclipse. I even got some pictures! A couple people stopped to ask me what I was doing. I didn't understand most of what they were asking, but I showed them the tracing I did have and my photos, and they said it was good. My favorite random stranger was an older woman walking by in her kimono with a parasol. She stopped, looked at me, then up. It was cloudy at this point, so she said (I can't remember the exact words, but the meaning is ...) "It's too bad, you can't see anything!" Then she kept walking.

Look at my pictures on Picasa!

Total Solar Eclipse