So I was wracking my brain trying to remember what it was like the last time we had a major solar eclipse here in the US. It was February 26th of 1979 and I was in first grade at Saint Mary’s Catholic School in Clarks Mills. For some reason I couldn’t come up with any mental image of what the eclipse was like and it frustrated me. And then I remembered, the nuns of Saint Mary’s wouldn’t let us outside for the eclipse that day–going so far as to cancel recess–because they weren’t going to let all the kids blind themselves looking at the sun.
It was a very different world in 1979. You couldn’t order a pair of “solar eclipse glasses” from Amazon Prime and have them delivered to you the next day–just in time for viewing. I saw some film clips of old newscasts this weekend showing people watching the eclipse through smoked glass plates. Kids were taught how to make “pinhole projectors” from cardboard boxes and pieces of white paper so you could see the shadow of the eclipse while looking away from the sun.
There was no “live coverage” of the ’79 eclipse either. I think our school had one television to be shared by all grade levels–and it was hooked up to a VCR unit that was the size of a microwave oven today. We didn’t have much to watch on TV in the classroom back then–as “audio/visual” meant a filmstrip projector and a record player with the “beep” to let you know when to advance to the next frame. Besides, the three TV networks at the time weren’t going to pre-empt afternoon soap operas just to show the moon passing in front of the sun.
Today, even those on the other side of the world will be able to “live stream” eclipse coverage from nearly the entire length of the eclipse as it passes over the US from the ground, from airplanes flying along the eclipse route and even from space. Played on an Ultra High Definition Screen, it will be as crystal clear as if you were standing in the narrow seventy-mile path of totality–and you won’t have to fight the insane traffic as people from all over the world try to find a spot across the country to view it.
And that streaming video coverage may unfortunately be the way that we here in the Fox Valley have to watch the eclipse. In keeping with one of the worst weather summers ever, we are going to have mostly cloudy skies here this afternoon–potentially blotting out the sun. Apparently, just one day without rain and clouds was too much to ask for.
If the clouds do linger this afternoon, I will log on to NASA’s website and get the total eclipse streamed live. That pretty much counts as “experiencing it in real life” nowadays–and Sister Clara doesn’t have to worry about me blinding myself.
