By G. E.
Shuman
As you
probably know, on Monday, April 8th, Vermont, and other states up
and down our great nation will be treated to a total solar eclipse. The eclipse
will occur in Vermont at about 3:20 in the afternoon that day and should prove
to be quite a show. Be prepared for the streetlights to come on, if only
briefly. Pretty cool!
There seems
to be much excitement brewing already about this eclipse, including many
schools being closed all day or closing early to be sure the kids get a chance
to see it. (Even though most schools are already closed by 3:30. Hum :-) Anyway, I don’t blame them. Teachers want to
get home to see it too; I know I do.
Yes, it
should be an exciting afternoon. Stores and online sources are offering viewing
glasses and other fun things to buy to help celebrate the event, and kids, no
matter how old we are, are going to be ready for the show. Please, if you
intend to watch the eclipse, be sure to have those approved eclipse glasses.
Watching it without them is extremely dangerous to your eyes. Remind others!
If you are
not familiar with solar eclipses, don’t feel too bad. Unless you’re a “space geek”
like me, you probably don’t think about them much. They don’t happen very often
either, and when they do, they are only visible to a limited area. Often, any
specific area might experience a partial eclipse, which means that only ‘part’
of the shadow affects where you are, only partially darkening the sky. Hence,
(I love the word hence.) the name partial eclipse.
This time,
Vermont is right in line for the moon’s shadow to treat us to a total solar
eclipse. And, if you’re not familiar with the differences, there are two types
of eclipses experienced on earth. The eclipse on the 8th will be a
solar one, which means the moon’s orbit around earth will cause it to come
between the sun and the earth, creating the shadow that we will experience. A
lunar eclipse is when the earth comes between the sun and the moon. When this
happens what we see is the actual shadow of the entire earth as it briefly
covers the moon. All of this is absolutely amazing to me.
I remember
viewing a solar eclipse when I was a kid. My class, probably third or fourth
grade, and I viewed it from the school playground. I don’t remember the year of
that eclipse, but I could probably look it up. I won’t, because a depiction of
that eclipse would probably include dinosaurs watching it right along with the
humans. Our teacher had shown us a way to view the eclipse, using large
cardboard boxes. There were no fancy eclipse glasses for us back then, or for the
dinosaurs.
To make an
eclipse viewing box you just needed to get a large cardboard box, (One big
enough to put your head in, and that depended, I suppose, on the size of your
head.) You would cut the bottom out of
the box, (for your head), and make about a ¼ inch hole in the middle of one end
of the box. Then you had to tape a piece of white paper on the inside of the
other end. Unbelievably, if you aimed the end of the box with the small hole at
the sun during the eclipse the image of the sun, and the moon as it covered it,
would be projected onto the white paper on the other end. Then, if you put the
whole thing over your head and could get your head out of the way enough, you
would be treated to a live and very safe way of viewing the eclipse. It did
work, but passers-by of the playground could easily point out who we little
geeks were. We were the ones running around with cardboard boxes on our heads.
If you get a
chance to safely view the eclipse on the 8th, please make an effort
to get out there and do so. When you do, remember these few facts that make such
an eclipse so amazing. Firstly, science has wondered for years how the earth
could possibly have a moon as large as ours. It has been said that our planet
should not be able to support one so large, and still, it does. Also, you may
not know that our sun is almost exactly four hundred times bigger than our
moon. The only reason the moon can perfectly cover the immense disk of the sun
is that the sun is almost exactly four hundred times farther from the earth
than the moon is. These things, to me, are miraculous examples of the precision
and perfect plan for creation of the creator of it all. Psalm 19:1 “The heavens
declare the glory of God,” When watching an eclipse, I can’t argue with that.