The Great American Eclipse of 2017

            Q & A
1.     What are the 5 signs that totality is approaching?
 2.     When is the next solar eclipse?  How old will you be?
3.    What is the main idea?  Give 2 supporting details.
​(Answers below)
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Look familiar?  This is the path a solar eclipse takes from start to finish.
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​The sun starts on the left side of this diagram.  In the next 5 pictures, the moon moves across the sun until it reaches totality, or full eclipse, in the 7th picture.  In the last 6 pictures, the sun and moon move back into their regular orbits.
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​If you could view an eclipse from space, and could connect the dots, this is what it would look like.

Find the white lines that touch the earth.  If you were standing anywhere between them, you’d get to see part of the eclipse. 
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​But, if you were standing at the end of the black cone, you’d see the whole entire eclipse from start to finish, the entire totality.  Lucky you!

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This is the Great American Eclipse’s map of totality.  You can follow the 3 lines from Oregon to South Carolina.  I was close in Lafollette, Tennessee, but we drove 90 minutes southwest to Sweetwater.  It was our sweet spot, and totally worth the drive!

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​Want to know what time the eclipse starts?  Google it!  I found a chart that takes you from Oregon to South Carolina, but it didn’t have Sweetwater, so I googled again.  In Sweetwater the eclipse started at 1:04.  Totality at 2:32.  We saw 2 minutes and 33 seconds of totality. Their site said so!

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The first picture is totality.  Did you know that one minute before totality, the sun starts giving you signs that it’s almost time?  I didn’t.  The second picture shows that first sign, shadow bands.  The earth’s atmosphere refracts the last rays of the sun.  Refracting bends the light, like with a rainbow.  If you want to see shadow bands, look at something white or light colored.  We watched a white truck in the parking lot.  My husband spotted them first, of course! ​​

Do you think the first picture looks like a diamond ring?  Scientists did!  It’s the 2nd sign, and it happens about 10-15 seconds before totality.  The ring is the sun’s corona.  The diamond is the last burst of sunlight.  I think it looks like the 6th picture, right before totality.​

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When the diamond fades, the corona’s left.  It’s the sun’s outer layer of atmosphere.  The sun’s surface is 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, but the corona is 200-300 degrees hotter.  Water boils and becomes steam at 180 degrees.  Can you imagine how hot the sun is?  YIKES!!!

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​ ​Do you see the tiny beads of light in the 1st picture?  The diagram calls them Baily’s Beads.  They show up 5 seconds before totality.  I missed them, but my husband saw them, of course.  Baily’s Beads aren’t real beads.  During an eclipse, the sunlight travels through the moon’s mountains and valleys.  From earth the light looks like beads.

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​See the red ring again?  It’s called the chromosphere, and it’s the middle layer of the sun’s atmosphere.  You see it just a few seconds before totality.  Then the other 2 layers of the sun’s atmosphere make it disappear once more.​​

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After 90 minutes the moon made the sun disappear.  It also made Sweetwater colder and darker.  At 2:30 in the afternoon a few stars came out.  Finally!  Totality!  It was incredible!  The whole town cheered, including hundreds of visitors.  Google Sweetwater, and you can see and hear us. 
We also took off the special eclipse glasses.  Totality is the only time you can look at an eclipse without them.  Before , and after totality, we wore them.
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Outside the totality zone, you didn’t see stars in the middle of the day, and you couldn’t take off the glasses, ​at all.  I’m glad we made the drive.  Totally!

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With totality over, the stars disappeared, and the signs reappeared, but in reverse order.  First Bailey’s Beads, then the Diamond Ring, the Corona, and finally the Shadow Bands. 

When the 1st Diamond Ring appeared, we were on the 6th picture of the diagram.  Within 4-5 minutes of time, we were on the 2nd Diamond Ring and the 7th picture.

My family stayed to watch for a few more minutes as the moon kept moving away from the sun.  Then we left.  I’m glad we did!  The roads back to the Lafollette were packed, even when we got off interstate and onto back roads.  When totality was over, it seemed like everyone in Tennessee was leaving Sweetwater. 

Looking back at the Great American Eclipse, just 10 days ago, I am so glad we drove to totality, and that I can share it with you.  If you weren’t in the zone this time, you’ll have another chance, in only 7 years.  Mark your calendar!  The next one is coming to a state near you on April 8, 2024.  Be there or be square!
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​https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/total-solar-eclipse.html
My biggest source for this post is this link.  My husband found it and printed out a packet.  Without this source, we would have missed things like shadow bands.  Thanks to the folks at timeanddate.com for teaching the teacher, and the engineer!

​            Q & A
1.     What are the 5 signs that totality is approaching?
Shadow bands, diamond ring, corona. Baily’s Beads, and chromosphere
 
2.     When is the next solar eclipse?  How old will you be?
April 8, 2024, and you’ll have to do your own math
 
3.    What is the main idea?  Give 2 supporting details.
Main: It’s about the how the great American Eclipse of 2017 came in and out of totality.
Supporting detail: The sun goes through 5 stages in the last minute before Totality.
Not a supporting detail: I watched totality in Sweetwater, TN.

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