Solar eclipse a sight to see

While most of the country had at least a partial view of the annular solar eclipse last Saturday, my wife, youngest son, and I were fortunate enough to be in the path of totality.

That means we were able to see the ring of fire as the moon blocked out all but the outer ring of the sun. It was a spectacular sight, something we will remember for a long time. I was also able to get some fairly decent pictures of it. The annular solar eclipse was kind of a trial run for the total solar eclipse that will cross Texas on April 8, 2024. That’s the big one that has everyone excited about when the moon completely blocks out the sun.

Both eclipses cross right over the Hill Country communities of Fredericksburg and Kerrville. We spent the weekend with Sandy’s parents in Kerrville. There was a community party nearby and they played songs like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Ring of Fire” during totality. Our plan is to be back in Kerrville on April 8. Our son, Colton, was in Fredericksburg over the weekend doing volunteer work with college students from church. Naturally, their monthly volunteer project just happened to be scheduled in Fredericksburg during the eclipse (wink, wink, nod, nod – and hey, why not!?)

Sandy and I are space nerds, making an effort to view the spectacular and unusual things in the celestial environment. We even run out to look at the tiny dot of the International Space Station when it flies over. Sandy’s parents are just as interested, both of them having worked at NASA during the Apollo era. The solar eclipses, however, are rare events and after April we will have to wait until Aug. 12, 2045, before another one crosses the United States.

Lunar eclipses, where the Earth casts its shadow on the moon, happen twice a year somewhere in the world. The next one happens in two weeks, but it won’t be visible here. The northeast portion of the country will get a partial view. The next lunar eclipse visible here will be on March 25, 2024.

Back in 2017 when we got to see a partial solar eclipse in Texas, we learned that the next two would be coming up, so we put them on the calendar and penciled in plans to be in Kerrville. Having a place to stay with an excellent view sure beats trying to get a hotel room or Airbnb, which have been sold out for a long time.

What we did not count on was Sandy getting surgery the day before. When she scheduled the surgery, we figured we would be on the road by mid-afternoon and she could sleep during the 4.5-hour drive from the Houston Medical Center to Kerrville. When we left the hospital at 8:45 p.m., we debated just going home and skipping the eclipse. But Sandy was a determined trooper, so we pushed on to Kerrville, getting in around 1:30 a.m. And for those asking, her surgery was a success and she is recovering very well.

I made up a makeshift filter for my camera using a special sheet of film we purchased online. It worked perfectly. I experimented with different settings and was able to figure out which ones will be best to use next time. After that, I’ll be 80 years old when the next one comes around and I’m sure the photographic technology will improve significantly by then.

Aside from natural events like eclipses, there are a lot of interesting things going on in space. It seems that SpaceX has nearly daily launches of some kind going on. Currently on the ISS, there is a woman from Sugar Land, Loral O’Hara, who is a flight engineer on the Expedition 70 crew. Sometime late next year, the Artemis 2 will be launched on an orbital mission around the moon, taking humans back there for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1973. Among the four members of the crew will be pilot Victor J. Glover. If his name seems familiar, it’s because he spoke last year in Wharton at Abell Street Church of Christ.

Glover, who was part of the four-person crew to make the first SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the space station in 2020, will become the first person of color to fly to the moon. He will be accompanied by Christina Koch, the first woman to go to the moon, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American to go to the moon, and commander Reid Wiseman. Although they will not land on the moon, their mission will be very similar to Apollo 8, which was the first to send humans into lunar orbit.

All of this celestial activity really gets the juices flowing and makes me appreciate what a wonderful time it is to be alive to witness all of this history. I know we don’t take it for granted and hopefully you won’t either.