Annular Solar Eclipse

Here are some photos I managed to shoot of the eclipse yesterday.  (This was an annular eclipse.  That means the moon doesn't quite cover the entire solar disc, so there's a ring around the shadow.)  Full eclipses are supposedly more rare, but I've seen a couple full solar eclipses, yet this is the first annular eclipse I've seen.

We used a welding mask glass to look at the sun, and since I didn't have the foresight to order a solar filter for my camera, I shot through the same glass.  Not idea, but it's what I had! (I think you can click on these and get larger images.)

About halfway (8:24pm CDST)

Nearly at peak (8:34pm CDST)

 Just past peak, with no filter (darn clouds!) 8:40pm CDST

Jen and Ryan seeing through the glass, and darkly

I still remember my first total eclipse.  I was seven, and we lived in Eastern Colorado.  A couple of families came over to the house and all the kids took turns watching through one of Dad's welding helmets.  It was a big social event. 

There isn't as much interest, especially in kids, as there used to be.  I don't know if technology is to blame (why go out and look when they'll show spectacular views from space on TV?). 

 Is it real?  Who knows...its going around the internet, so probably a hoax

Maybe.  But at least my family enjoyed it together!

Sicka Cicadas

Apparently the whole cicada thing in Tennessee is much bigger than we desert-bound folks can appreciate.  I enjoyed this video of the phenomenon.

The Microburst

We had our first thunderstorm here since last Fall.  Tuesday night, about 1 am, a storm moved through.  Unfortunately, we got about 0.07" of rain instead of the three or four we needed.  We did get the wind and damage.  Here's the big tree in front of my office.

Sorry about the rotation...no idea how to make the blog editor fix that.

Fortunately, nothing other than the tree itself was broken.  This makes me think of how much damage the Alabama storms did.  According to the weather folks, we had a microburst as one of the thunderstorms was breaking up.  It produced a wind gust of 84 mph.  That's less than half what the EF-4 twister did in Alabama.  Wow.

It's all about perspective.