Two Days in Indiana

During a total eclipse, the moon obscures the. entire disc of the sun, and you see the corona, or gaseous outside of the sun.
At the edge, you can see solar flares escaping between the mountains of the moon.
Len took this photo that shows some of these flares. Each one is hundreds of times the size of the earth.

Total Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024

Viewing a total solar eclipse is a rare opportunity, and as everyone told us, it was deeply exciting. We were fortunate — and my brother Arny was diligent — in finding a very pleasant and convenient location from which to watch: a private event at Eagle Creek Foundation in Indianapolis. Attendees enjoyed lectures, three meals, parking, and lots of space on the grounds of the foundation’s building. The weather was beautiful — warm, only slight cloud cover, and no rain. 

We set up at a location where we would be able to see the sun throughout the eclipse, which started at 1:50 PM, reached totality at 3:06 PM, and ended at 4: 23. Totality lasted for three minutes and 49 seconds — that’s VERY fast!

Getting ready to listen to a presentation about the eclipse. The little girl’s shirt depicted celestial objects,
including the sun.

Setting up equipment: Len’s tripod has a tracking device so that
the camera always picks up an image of the sun.

Arny set up several devices for tracking and photographing the sun throughout the eclipse.

At lunch… hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and soft drinks!

Using nearly opaque viewing glasses is essential to avoid damaging one’s retina
Except during totality, it’s very dangerous to look directly at the eclipse.

As the eclipse begins, the shadow of the moon takes a bite out of the sun’s disc.

Total Eclipse

The entire world seems to be in total darkness, but on the horizon there is light from the distant area
where there is not totality. It’s called a 360° sunset.

The moment when the first rays of the sun come from behind the moon’s shadow.

Totality is ending: a sliver of bright sunlight comes from behind the moon.

At left you can see the shadow of a colander that we brought for viewing.
At right: during the eclipse, the shadow becomes a crescent instead of a circle.
This is due to the effect of light going through a slit (like the small holes in the colander.

In Lafayette

We stayed in West Lafayette where my sister lives, and left in the morning of the 8th to drive to Indianapolis to watch the eclipse. Our departure was at around 9 AM on the day of the eclipse (April 8) and we arrived at Eagle Creek Park in around an hour. As everyone predicted, traffic after the eclipse was insane !! and the return trip took almost three hours.

White pelicans are migrating through Lafayette this week. Len and Arny went to see them.

Wabash River bridge looking towards downtown Lafayette from our hotel room window.

My sister saved us some Hamantaschen from Purim.
She uses my mother’s recipe.

The trip home was fortunately uneventful. Just outside of Lafayette, we passed
this truck accident but fortunately there wasn’t much of a slowdown.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

All photos © 2024 by mae and len sander