December 25, 2000

For the last few months, I have beeen anxiously awaiting the Christmas eclipse. From my location, the sun would only be about 50% eclipsed, but it would still be an impressive sight.

I would be away from home for Christmas and didn't have the extra room to pack my telescope, but did bring along a pair of solar viewing glasses from a recent Astronomy magazine. Cold weather and snow was predicted for Christmas Day. There was nothing more I could do except hope for the best.

After presents were opened and with a little breakfast in my belly, I took my first look outside. Sure enough, the sky was overcast. However, there were sections of the sky that had a thinner cloud cover than others, and the Sun occasionally peeked through enough to see through the solar viewer.

Around 10:00am, I started looking for signs of the eclipse. Sure enough, a small "bite" was taken out of the top of the star. I invited all the other family members (including the kids) to come and take a peek through the viewer glasses.

By 11:00am, the clouds were getting thicker, but I could still see the Sun through the glasses. This was about the time of the maximum eclipse, so I once again invited the family to take a final peek. The youngest girl (age 7) said the Sun looked like it was smiling at us.

I decided to quickly snap a picture with my Uncle's digital camera before the clouds finally won out. I aimed at the Sun and placed the solar glasses in front of the shutter and then snapped the picture (shown at right). Granted the conditions and the method of photography were far from ideal, but at least it manages to show the approximate level of eclipse.