I was preparing breakfast last week and I heard my housemates (who are teachers for missionary kids and are currently in school) say, "Wow! That's awesome. Come on, let's go." Curious, I asked what was happening and where they were going. They said, "It's a solar eclipse, that why the day is so weird." We all loaded in their truck to head to one of the family's homes. The dad had set up binaculars with cardboard to cast the shadow.
I felt like a little kid in science class. I have never spent time (or known when) an eclipse was, and definitely have never seen it through a cool set up like this one. After a few embarrassing questions that showed my true ignorance to what was happening, I learned that the crescent shape I was seeing was not just the moon, but the white was the sun and the dark was the moon going over the sun.
I also learned that this was an annular solar eclipse that won't happen again for 115 years in Uganda. And that this was a particularly special eclipse, lasting for almost 2 hours (whereas, most eclipses are finished in about 7 minutes). I didn't get to see the ring of fire (when the moon is directly over the sun and shines a ring), but we did watch as the moon moved to make the crescent shape larger. All in all, it was very cool.
I felt like a little kid in science class. I have never spent time (or known when) an eclipse was, and definitely have never seen it through a cool set up like this one. After a few embarrassing questions that showed my true ignorance to what was happening, I learned that the crescent shape I was seeing was not just the moon, but the white was the sun and the dark was the moon going over the sun.
I also learned that this was an annular solar eclipse that won't happen again for 115 years in Uganda. And that this was a particularly special eclipse, lasting for almost 2 hours (whereas, most eclipses are finished in about 7 minutes). I didn't get to see the ring of fire (when the moon is directly over the sun and shines a ring), but we did watch as the moon moved to make the crescent shape larger. All in all, it was very cool.
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