I saw a solar eclipse today (albeit a partial one)!

I knew there was going to be a partial solar eclipse around 5:30 am today, but I went to bed a little later than I hoped and decided that, since it was only partial, I wasn’t going to miss much. I set my alarm for 6:30 am so I could run – I’ve now decided that I like morning running.

Then, at 5:23 am, I popped awake. I felt like some sort of bug was crawling on me or something, and I was a little itchy. I looked at the time and realized that the eclipse would soon be upon us, so I decided to peek out the window to see what I could see. I could not see the sun – it was still behind the trees. I thought the sunlight may have been slightly weaker than usual, but I wasn’t very certain at all.

Being tired, I decided to return to bed. First, though, I thought I’d give my little dog a kiss to just say hello. She had been resting in her bed the whole time I was looking out the window but the kiss, of course, woke her up completely.

I tried to get her to settle down and go back to bed but this was, unsurprisingly, fruitless. Five minutes later, I heard my mom (who apparently also woke up to try to see the eclipse) moving around. (My mom later told me that it was her plan to wake up for the eclipse, but that she did not set an alarm because she was confident that excitement about the eclipse would wake her up!) I brought my dog downstairs, let her outside, and decided to wake up for good

By now, the sun was visible above the trees, and I was thoroughly awake. I took my pinhole camera and tried to look at the eclipse. I saw nothing impressive.

After several minutes of checking the pinhole camera and maybe, just maybe seeing a small bite taken out of the sun, I was about to proceed with the rest of my day. Then, I recalled the “multiple sunglasses strategy” – a daring approach for sun-gazing used by people during the 2017 solar eclipse, which consists of stacking 4+ sunglasses to make DIY eclipse glasses.

I recalled the “multiple sunglasses strategy” – a daring approach for sun-gazing used by curious but official glasses-less individuals during the 2017 solar eclipse, which consists of stacking 4+ sunglasses to make DIY eclipse glasses.

I looked out the window through this new contraption, expecting to be unimpressed. Instead, the glasses assembly revealed a huge bite out of the sun!

an image of the eclipse

A view of the eclipse through official eclipse glasses that my dad found. The glowing shape is the sun as seen through the glasses; you can see the bite out of the sun in the lower left corner. The actual eclipse looked much better. The sun's edges were very crisp, and it looked much bigger than it looks in this picture. Taking a picture of an eclipse is hard!

We then told my dad about the eclipse, and he remembered where our official glasses from 2017 were, so we were then more safely and more readily able to observe the eclipse. I proceeded to check on the sun every few minutes, the bite continually decreasing in size as the moon and sun slid past one another.

An obligatory note on running

After the eclipse finished, I decided to run. Having run 18+ miles over the past two days (with only about 4 of those miles coming yesterday!), my legs were kind of tired, but it was fun, and I ran about 5 miles at about a 7:15 pace. I even managed this with a shirt on, despite oppressive >85% humidity. I’ll take it.

I got new shoes a couple of days ago, and they have made an awesome (in the original awe-based meaning of the word) difference. Fingers crossed that they continue to keep me injury-free.

Fingers crossed that they continue to keep me injury-free.

Also, I might run more today. I’ll see.