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My Journey to the Eclipse! April 9th, 2024
Thanks for visiting this website! I’d like to tell you a little bit about my family’s wonderful journey to see and learn about the total Solar Eclipse on April 9th, 2024. This will be the last time we can see one for 20 years, so it was a rare and special moment for me and my family.
The Plan
Not all places experienced a total solar eclipse on April 8th. It very much depended on where you were. To see the shadow of the Moon completely block out the Sun, you had to be somewhere along what is known as the Path of Totality. I knew that my home didn’t reach it, so my wife found a great National Park in Ohio to see the eclipse, so we grabbed the kids, packed the car, packed the telescope, took a bunch of eclipse glasses and drove to Ohio!
Coming Home
I’m actually an Ohio native, so it was quite special to take my family to the state I was born in. Say what you will about the Buckeye State, but it has a phenomenal park system! The Cuyahoga Valley National Park has lots of activities that are both educational and fun! My kids enjoyed hiking the trail seeing a literal bat cave, and a secret scavenger hunt with a sweet surprise. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say if you have kids and are going to Cuyahoga National Park, do the Junior Ranger Program at the Boston Mill Visitor Center; it’s part scavenger hunt, part nature walk, part science expedition, all fun!
https://www.nps.gov/cuva/planyourvisit/trip-planner.htm
Eclipse Party!
A National Park is one of the best places to view an eclipse with kids- there were free talks with rangers, commemorative T-shirts, arts and crafts and beautiful surroundings. The Visitor Center was packed with people and families eager to purchase memorabilia, including the special Junior Ranger booklet just for the occasion!
My family arrived at the park around 11 AM and had a picnic at one of the historic houses on the park grounds.
Filming the Eclipse
It’s hard work filming and taking pictures of a solar eclipse! First of all, YOU NEED A FILTER. Just like your own eyes, pointing a phone directly at the Sun could permanently damage the phone’s lens or CCD chip. NASA issued a warning before the eclipse that people should, at the very least, put a pair of eclipse-viewing glasses over the phone. In addition, without the glasses, you can’t really see anything anyway. Before Totality, the Sun just looks normal to the naked eye; the filter helps the eye or camera see the passage of the Moon over the Sun. Fortunately, my parents gave me an eclipse phone filter and some commemorative glasses so that I could take pictures without damaging my eyes or my phone.
I was using a Samsung Galaxy 10, which has a pretty high-resolution camera. That said, it was still hard to get a good picture. Since smartphones naturally focus on the brightest portion of the frame, and since eclipse filters black out most of the lens, I had to adjust my settings to make sure I could see the Sun clearly. It was also a challenge because the Sun kept moving. I started filming around 2PM, and during that hour the Sun traveled 15 degrees. In almost every picture, I had to re-adjust for the location of the Sun, (which is a constant problem for amateur astronomers).
Before Totality
It was a beautiful, sunny day around 65 degrees. Everyone was worried it would be cloudy but once the afternoon started, the sky was perfectly clear. My family and I had a picnic around one of the historic old Victorian buildings on the land of the Cuyahoga Valley Parks, (incidentally, parking was EXTREMELY STRESSFUL). We set up our telescopes and did our Junior Ranger books which included a special badge just for the occasion! Most of the crowds were at the visitor center, but we were joined by just a few families, astronomy students, and hikers enjoying the event much like us.
At 2:09 PM, the first sliver of darkness cut across the Sun. I took my first picture. Over the next 40 minutes, we chased the Sun across the sky with cameras, telescopes, and our glasses-covered eyes. My wife even noticed that if you lace your fingers together and hold them between the Sun and your feet, a small shadow of a crescent appears on the ground. Again, without the filters and glasses, the Sun didn’t seem to be any different, but with the special equipment, we saw the Moon slowly stealing its light!
At 2:57PM, the sky began to grow darker. The once hot day became noticably colder. Birds stopped chirping. We were told that all sorts of animals in the park might react differently during the eclipse. Nocturnal animals like bats, skunks, and owls might start flying or rooting around. I didn’t notice any, but that was just this one area of the park. The planets started to come out as well- I observed Pisces just above the Sun, Jupiter to the left, and Venus just below and off to the right.
At 3:15, the last ray of sunlight disappeared. A huge cheer erupted from the crowd and we finally took off our glasses. The Sun we had known was replaced by a beautiful white halo around a dark sphere. Just before totality, a sliver of sunlight known as “Baily’s Beads” cut across the sky. Sadly, I wasn’t able to photograph it, but I got a picture from Wikimedia commons:
During totality, I could also see some beautiful pink solar prominences around the edges of the eclipse. Solar prominences are extensions of the Sun’s magnetic field that burst from the surface of the Sun’s corona.
Once totality ended, as the Sun returned, there was a beautiful split second moment where the Sun and moon briefly looked like a giant diamond ring in the sky. Sadly, I wasn’t able to film it, but I did find a clip on Youtube of it from Dallas Texas.
Once totality was over, the light slowly returned, the park warmed up, and people got ready to go. It was a brief moment, but one that was made all the more fun by all the activities and learning we did on the way. I’m glad I was able to shart it with my family, and that now I’ve shared it with you!
Memoirs Of An Astro-Nut 