Solar Eclipse – An Amazing Example of Our Connected Technology
We almost forgot about it. We had been talking about it for weeks, but when the day actually came – we got caught up in yard work, bills, and regular Sunday stuff.
Bryan ran in the house at quarter till 6, telling us to hurry up, get packed – we’re going up to the Museum of Nature and Science. It was SOLAR ECLIPSE TIME!
And there we were, sitting on the hill behind the museum, with hundreds of people – so many that the museum ran out of viewing glasses and were walking around asking people to share – looking at the skyline of Denver and a really, really bright sun.
For a while, it seemed like we were doomed because of a gigantic cloud that covered the sun, but it miraculously cleared just at the right half hour. And then we saw it, a solar eclipse – oh my god. And then the sun plopped down behind the mountains and was gone for the night.
We were a little ill-prepared, but my husband, being a total science nerd – was fashioning all sorts of ways for us to see the eclipse through the bright sunlight. My favorite was using mix CDs he had in the car. I also saw people online looking through beer bottles. Genius.
And that’s the thing. We are so connected, when something like this happens globally, it really happens to us, while we are sitting on that hill in Denver, but also in Utah and in California and everywhere else – because people across the globe could see the photos of it happening via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Here are some of my favorite photos that flew through my Instagram stream minutes after mine went up.
Amazing.
I was telling Declan how, when his grandmother moved to America from Germany, they used to record cassette tapes about the latest news and mail it back and forth because it was so expensive to call. And that it would take a few weeks for the cassette to arrive in Germany.
“Isn’t it crazy how photos from all around the world are right here, on my phone, pretty much the instant anything is happening?”
He is so much smarter than me.
“No, Mom. I’ve had this technology my whole life. It’s weird to me that they didn’t.”
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I love your kid. – m
oh and those pics were awesome!!! – m
Holy Shit Dex, thanks for putting it into perfect perspective. Whoa.
All clouds all rain all the time on Sunday, MISSED THE ECLIPSE. Yeah, I’m a bit bitter.
I love seeing all the different pics like that. It really is amazing what we can do (and how quickly!) with technology today.
LOVE THIS!!!! WTG Dex.
We had clouds in the way up here in Fort Collins. But now I wish I’d tried. Several cool pictures on the 9News website included clouds.
WOW. We were all cloudy and could not see.
Those pictures are truly awesome !! AND, leave it to Declan to come up with such woderful logic…..can’t wait to see him so we can tell him some more of those ‘old’ stories :))
I will spend weeks wondering how people got some of those shots! Thanks for sharing them all.
Yay for science nerds! And tech nerds! And smart sons!
Thank you for sharing. I tried to see the eclipse, but with interruptions etc, I missed it…