Anyone else watching the partial solar eclipse?

[sneezles]

There is a partial solar eclipse happening tonight during the sunset (right now here in Texas). My DH has a welding helmet so I actually get to look at it! So cool!

[mochadelsol]

oh my gosh here in Washington State, I got to see it too w/my DS welding helmet. Thank you for the suggestion. I was watching it on the news and came to check the BB, to find you talking about it. It's sooo cool :cool: I went ripping out of the house to the garage and told my DS let's go & grab the helmet. Awesome!! Thanks sneezles

[Gail]

Not watching, but boy it is having an effect upon me. I knew I have sensitive eyes, but wow. We have shutters on most of our windows, and they're open just a tad. The quality of light coming through is making my eyes ache, and the shadows outside are really eerie.

[Wendy w]

I had forgotten that it was tonight. I looked out in the back yard when I was making dinner and was wondering why it was so shadowy.

[Marian]

We were in and out checking on it, while I was making dinner. It was very cloudy here so at times we couldn't get any view of it. It was very cool though - the children loved it.

[Peggy]

The sky here was somewhat smokey from a nearby brush fire, so I'm afraid we didn't see much of it.:(

Peggy

[DmOrtega]

It was very cool. I made a box to watch it through. My kids and I saw it go about half way over the sun around 6:30. We were happy the weather was sunny and clear because it was a nice evening to have dinner outside on the patio.

[slknight]

I didn't hear anything about it or notice anything different last night. Anyone know if maybe you couldn't see it on the East Coast? I noticed everyone who's replying to this lives out West.

[sneezles]

Yes, it could be seen on the East Coast, basically anywhere in North America. It ocurred during the sunset. I noticed that it wasn't talked about much on the news which is probably why most didn't know about it. My sister sends the boys emails to check out the Nasa website all the time.

[mochadelsol]

interesting tid bit, in Costa Rica it was a total eclipse! how cool is that.

[slknight]

Hmm. Actually I just found this on the Nasa website:

"The first solar eclipse of 2002 is annular with a path that stretches the breadth of the Pacific Ocean. The partial phases are visible from eastern Asia and most of North America except for the northeast."

So I guess we couldn't see it here anyway. Sneezles, we're waaayyyyy up here in the corner. I guess you could see it on much of the east coast, but not here.

Here's the NASA 2002 eclipse page for anyone who is interested:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2002.html

[sneezles]

Originally posted by slknight
Sneezles, we're waaayyyyy up here in the corner. I guess you could see it on much of the east coast, but not here.

Well, I never really looked at the entire list just scrolled down to Texas, never noticed Maine was missing! Looks like some of Florida wouldn't have been able to see it, either!

[Heidi]

I live in Savannah (coastal GA) and we couldn't see it--the sun set right before the eclipse occurred. When I was watching CNN they said that if you lived east of Atlanta, you were pretty much out of luck. Bummer :(

[Beth]

Sneezles, I don't remember how cloudy it was near Houston, but I didn't notice a thing. I forgot about it at the time and wouldn't have been prepared anyway -- may have had something to do with moving a play structure and having to sign a bunch of documents (we hired a new real estate agent last night). Glad you caught it. Did you have to be able to see the sun near the horizon? The trees might have hidden it here.

[Curleytop]

Yep, we watched the eclips too. We have some special coated sheets which we got from someone that worked in a place where they make coated lenses. made for looking at the sun. You place the sheet over your eyes, and then you can look directly at the sun. It was awsome!

[sneezles]

Originally posted by Beth
Did you have to be able to see the sun near the horizon? The trees might have hidden it here.

Beth,
Sorry but didn't see your post until now! I'm 98 miles NW of Houston and it was very, very clear but the trees could present a problem. I actually started in the driveway, went to the windows on the front of the house and then up to DS#3's room about 35 minutes into it. By 8:15 the sun was behind the tallest tree so I only saw 30%. But it was very cool (and a bit difficult with the welding helmet) but couldn't see anything with the naked eye. It's truly a shame that the media didn't do a better job of informing the public of this rare and wonderful event!