Eclipse!

The three of us were at Flagstaff, Arizona's Lowell Observatory (where Pluto was discovered) for the New Horizons fly-by in 2015. It was fantastic to be around so many fellow nerds for such an exciting event.

Well, Saturday's annular eclipse exceeded that! Nearly 2,000 people crammed in, starting at 6 am (even though it didn't open until 7:30). There were loads of telescopes to look through; one where we saw sunspots, one where we saw solar flares (had never seen those "in person" before). 

There are obviously many amazing photos of this event by professionals. (See this one, for example - note how it isn't "smooth" at the upper left? That's because the moon's surface is uneven - you're seeing the effects of hills and valleys on the moon!) And it was amazing - just a ring of blazing light in the sky? That seems weirder than the sun disappearing entirely. Here are some of my pics from our time with all the nerds at Lowell:

Baby, it was cold at 7 am! And it took a long long time to get in....

The sunspot telescope.

One of the new areas at Lowell since 2015 included signs pointing at where the sunrise (and sunset) is at the solstices and equinox. (Solstices at the far ends of this photo.) Was really striking to see just how different they are. We'd love to go there for an evening program if we could stay up until after dark. Would be easier for us to attend a 5 am program than a 10 pm one!

Look at the picture at the far right. Our sun (which is, of course, huge) is tiny compared to a different star.  😮

In the men's bathroom.

Pluto!!

With the live feed and one of the non-solar telescopes behind us.

"Where is the eclipse?"

Maximum eclipse in Flagstaff (not full annular) taken with my phone through the "glasses."

This was the feed (we were watching and listening on the phone) when it was maximum annularity in New Mexico. (The view at Lowell is in the upper left.)