A long time ago—twelve years ago in fact because it was the year Loopy & I got together—there was a partial solar eclipse in Bisbee, Arizona.
We drove down from Tucson, where we were living at the time, with my Dad and Mina, a good friend from Japan.
You always see eclipse photos in books and on TV, etc., but there were two things that surprised and amazed me about the real live thing.
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First, as above, there were little crescents everywhere!
Why? Well, you don't ordinarily think about it, but when there are dappled shadows (like with leaves), the light is actually in the shape of little circles, because the sun is a circle.
When the sun isn't a circle... tah-dah!!!
COOL, huh????
Second, when the sun is right at the edge of the moon, you can see the mountains on the moon! Click here to see...
Isn't Flickr great? I don't have to find & scan my own photos of these events... you can enjoy other people's!
But thinking of that day makes me a little sad...makes me miss my Dad.
It hardly seems possible that he could have found out about the eclipse, planned & organized our trip and driven us down there. I'm glad, remembering that yes, he used to be like that—full of fun ideas and eager to make sure everyone has a good time.
*sigh*
I dug up a photo from that day after all...
<<<My Dad being a goofball, with the solar eclipse projected onto his shirt.
(Some scientific type person had it set up to be projected onto a white screen, so we could watch it safely without burning our eyeballs yadda yadda, but the darn eclipse just dragged on and on and after a while everybody got a little punchy).
I should take this photo next time I go see them... he'd probably get a kick out of them even though he wouldn't remember...
It makes me glad that he's still alive, even though he's half in a dream all the time. He still acts like a big goofball, teases me or Mom and laughs like crazy.
*sigh*
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