Nature is cool

Anybody in the path of totality for the solar eclipse yesterday? We were lucky enough to be able to see it from our back porch. Our neighbour across the street, who is an avid amateur astronomer, was so sweet and dropped off eclipse viewers in our mailbox last week, along with a note on how to use them and times for everything happening. We were super touched she thought to do that for us, especially since apparently it was impossible to get any viewers around here otherwise. I didn't think I was going to be that interested in it, but once it came time, I was actually really excited, so I'm glad we had them. Totality was very cool and very pretty with the corona around it. I think we had about three minutes worth of totality, which is near the maximum. I remember there being an annular eclipse when I was about ten that was exciting at the time and we got together in the school 'pit' (a weird little odeum-esque area in the middle of the school) to watch what I assume was a livestream/broadcast of it on one of those rolling TVs schools use. This is my first, and likely only, total eclipse. I think it's not until 2180 we'll have another in this area and I'm grateful I got to experience it.

I also think it's cool how joyful an occasion it was for everyone. After all the varying levels of bad the world has gone through and is going through in the last few years, it's nice to have a thing where we all just sort of stood together and said 'isn't this fucking cool?!'