Eclipses

First was the lunar eclipse on October 7. David set an alarm and went to check whether we would be able to see the eclipse or if it was too cloudy. It was clear enough to see the moon, so we woke up Thomas. The earth was only part-way covering the moon when we went out and it was slow going for it to cover the whole thing. I gave up and went in, and soon Thomas and David joined me because the clouds were covering up the moon. Last time there was a lunar eclipse, a few months ago, we only saw it completely covered and red, so this really completed the experience.

Then just a couple of weeks ago on October 23 we got to see a solar eclipse. It had been cloudy all day so we didn't even tell the boys about it. The Central Arkansas Astronomical Society was having an event on the Big Dam Bridge where they provided solar viewing glasses so you could actually look at the sun. We decided to give it a shot, so we told the kids we were going for a walk on the bridge. When we got there we could tell there was a break in the clouds that the sun would soon move into, so we told them what we were doing and quickly walked to the middle of the bridge. We made it just a few minutes before the sun came out from behind the clouds. We put the glasses on and saw total darkness, but once the sun came out we could definitely see that they worked and we were able to see the sun perfectly through them. I held the glasses up to the camera and were able to get a pretty good shot of what we were able to see.