Eclipse at Hand

Child, behold the lovely pattern
Mars and Venus draw with Saturn.
Pause upon a hill and see
Celestial geometry.

Bend and carefully observe
The petal's precise fabric curve.
This is mathematics true
Beyond the kind that men construe.

Any vine you gaze upon
Plots a perfect pentagon.
Every ray the sun expels
Fashions faultless parallels.

Where the comet wanes and comes
Are essential axioms.
Gaze upon the sky, and ponder -
Primal algebra is yonder.


Mathematics, by Lionel Wiggam


School was dismissed early so people could go home and observe the solar eclipse. My wife and I watched it in the yard. From our house we saw about 97% of the sun get obscured. You can't really tell from the photograph, but it was a noticeably eerie effect - definitely more like being in a huge shadow than experiencing twilight. Still, even the small sliver of sun not covered was still very bright, which was impressive to contemplate. This is the third solar eclipse I have a strong memory of.

My son made the effort to travel north so he could experience the total eclipse and sent us the photo in the extra immediately afterwards. Looks like he found a good place to watch it if you ask me!