Patricia Stoltey

Author

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Contact

With My Back to the Sun, I Still Saw the Eclipse

August 22, 2017 By: Patricia

I spent the duration of the eclipse yesterday sitting in my lawn chair with the sun shining on my shoulders from the back. I felt the chill descend when the eclipse reached near totality. I saw the light turn a weird yellow that gave me a bit of a chill down my spine. I heard the silence in the trees and throughout the neighborhood.

And I saw the eclipse unfold in hundreds, maybe thousands, of reflections on the front of our house and the sidewalks. The house faces south with an aspen tree strategically placed to create exactly the images I’d heard about when reading blogs about the eclipse.

 

 

We also had a pinhole viewer made from a shoebox to watch the movement of the moon between the sun and the earth, but the shadowy reflections were more fun to watch. Without reading those random blogs in advance, I might not have recognized these crescent shapes for what they were.

More from my site

  • GETTING THE WORD OUT: Social media and I have an uneasy encounter … by Allan J. EmersonGETTING THE WORD OUT: Social media and I have an uneasy encounter … by Allan J. Emerson
  • There will be a short intermission…There will be a short intermission…
  • A to Z Challenge: O is for Opera (and Linda Osmundson and “Ordinary Grace” by William Kent Krueger)A to Z Challenge: O is for Opera (and Linda Osmundson and “Ordinary Grace” by William Kent Krueger)
  • The Allison Coil mystery series by Mark Stevens: A Review of TraplineThe Allison Coil mystery series by Mark Stevens: A Review of Trapline
  • Why I Write About Animals … by Pam WolfWhy I Write About Animals … by Pam Wolf
  • First Sentences in Short StoriesFirst Sentences in Short Stories

Category: Photography, The Writing Life Tag: Eclipse photos 2017

Comments

  1. Margot Kinberg says

    August 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    I think that’s a terrific idea for eclipse-watching, Pat! I really wish I’d had a real view of it, but I don’t live in the path of totality. So there wasn’t nearly as much to see here.

    • Patricia Stoltey says

      August 23, 2017 at 12:48 pm

      It was pretty cool, Margot. Especially when the light turned so eerie even though we weren’t in the path of 100% totality.

  2. Madeline mora-summonte says

    August 23, 2017 at 6:31 am

    What a fun idea! We didn’t have totality here, but it was interesting to watch the partial.

    • Patricia Stoltey says

      August 23, 2017 at 7:01 am

      In Northern Colorado we were getting maybe 95% totality or maybe a little more. I did not want to get out in all that traffic and pay lots of money for a place to stay….and then risk a cloudy day. So staying home worked out just fine.

  3. L. Diane Wolfe says

    August 22, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    That is crazy! Wow, that’s a lot better than seeing the eclipse through a pinhole camera. Which is what I had to do. We grew a little dim here, but the sun was still shining bright for being mostly covered.

    • Patricia Stoltey says

      August 23, 2017 at 7:00 am

      It really was fascinating! My husband wasn’t convinced we were seeing what I said we were seeing, but when the moon finally started to move away from the sun so the crescents reversed, it became obvious. Lots of fun!

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. My most recent release, In Defense of Delia (Five Star/Cengage, November 2022), is available in hardcover and will soon be available in ebook and trade paperback. Read More…

Search

Categories

In Defense of Delia

In Defense of Delia

Wishing Caswell Dead

Dead Wrong

Copyright © 2023 · Customized with by: Upperdale Designs