The Imminent Solar Eclipse

 

By G. E. Shuman

As you probably know, on Monday, April 8^th, 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 8^th 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 8^th, 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.