A solar celebration

 

 Sunday May 19th we set out to enjoy the solar eclipse.  We had a few different plans throughout the day that just weren't working out.  We decided to go out, even without a functioning set up.  We wanted to be there to celebrate the change. 

My family was very fortunate to meet a man (a physicist from here)  and his son at the park who were also there to witness the eclipse.  He had spent his afternoon building this amazing set up from backyard scraps.

The light from the sun travels through the hole, and an attached binocular, then reflects the sun's light and shape onto the back board.  So so perfect.

As the moon and sun made their way across the sky my family spent time flying the kite, exploring the park, and enjoying the rapidly changing light.
 

A moment of full disclosure:  I edit about 98% of the photos that I put on the blog.  Usually I crop, and often I adjust the light some.  I chose to keep this set of pictures pure of edit.  This is just as they came out of my camera.  Aside from the photo at the very top the rest should be in order of time.  The time stamp ended up wonky, so I had to just judge based on the sunlight.

I took quite a few (44) pictures of the reflected sun light on Dr. Immel's contraption.  These five below show the dramatic changes starting about 20ish minutes after the eclipse started.  They have been edited for contrast, and cropped for size.

 What a blessed day.