Solar Eclipse of the Heart

So by now, I'm sure you've seen every one's pictures of the solar eclipse that happened on Sunday. It was an awesome view from all over the Western United States.... but I'm just gonna brag for a minute and say that the views from Northern Arizona were the best. We had been camping up in Flagstaff area for the weekend, having fun cave adventuring and aboriginal ruin exploring (but more on those later), so we stuck around to view the eclipse from the Wupatki National Monument. 

My boyfriend is a bit of a space nerd, so he brought his telescope with a solar filter along. (I'm sure you heard a million times by now, you should not view an eclipse with the naked eye or through normal binoculars/telescopes. Safety first!). Several other people had the same idea of watching the eclipse from this spot so we made friends, shared solar viewers /glasses, and took lots of pictures. And yes, several people felt it necessary to sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" very loudly for the whole 1-2 hours. (Can't really say I blame them).

All of the pictures below are from the boyfriends camera, the pictures of the sun were taking using a small digital camera pointed at the eye piece of the telescope.

gettin' ready

Shadows created by pinholes in a posterboard. They mimick the shape of the eclipse at that point in time. This was taken during the "ring of fire".

Sun is starting to set... see the outline of the trees in the bottom right?

My favorite picture, this photo was actually featured on Universe Today. 

 

I have many many more pictures from the weekend - but I am still playing catch up between work, fight club, and packing/planning my next adventure.They will be posted soon as soon as I can.

Did you see the eclipse?