The solar eclipse and a space diary

There was a solar eclipse this morning and just as it went noticeably darker I glanced out my window and inadvertently looked right at the sun. How bad is my luck? All week I’ve been desperately hoping to see the aurora borealis only to be disappointed by cloud and fog. The minute there’s a solar eclipse all the clouds disappear and I look right at it. I didn’t even want to look at it! Now I’ve probably got permanent eye damage and I’ll go blind the moment before a red squirrel and a pine marten make out in our backyard.

Elizabeth drew this cool space diary yesterday. I’ll translate the planet names below.

Starting from Earth at the top (under Space diary) and moving around anti-clockwise: moon, alien planet, candy planet, star planet, sheep planet (must be NZ), birthday planet (she pronounces birthday, birfday), moon planet, sleep planet. I like the sound of birthday planet.

Posted

March 20, 2015

Journal

Rachel M

Tags:

children, eclipse, planets, solar eclipse, space, space diary, writing

Comments

23 responses to “The solar eclipse and a space diary”

Denise

March 20, 2015

Two of our science groups went out this morning and they didn’t see anything! Not even registering a drop in temperature. The feed from Sweden looked much clearer – it must be better up North!

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  It wasn’t that great. I mean, it was very interesting, but I wasn’t particularly keen to see it. Maybe that’s my problem with those other things that keep eluding me like red squirrels and pine martens. I need to stop looking for them.
  
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ladysighs

March 20, 2015

I like the sleep planet.

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  So does my husband.
  
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scifihammy

March 20, 2015

Aw, very sweet. She does well with her spelling, as it can be interpreted 🙂

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  I’m glad you like it. I love her spelling and I don’t want to correct it because it’s just so cute.
  
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Secular Vegan

March 20, 2015

It was so cloudy down here in Warwickshire that the partial eclipse wasn’t visible and just meant that it went slightly darker for a short while, but nothing spectacular.

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  I wasn’t expecting to see anything here since we’ve had fog every night this week when I’ve been wanting to see The Northern Lights. I think The Northern Lights would be much more spectacular to see than a solar eclipse. I don’t really understand all the fuss. You didn’t miss very much.
  
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JC Moore

March 20, 2015

We have plenty of red squirrels in our yard and I will send you a picture of one if I can figure out how. Apparently Pine Martens are very elusive, so it is not likely you will ever get the two together.

There does seem to be one somewhere out near Cornwall:
http://www.care2.com/causes/cornwall-has-its-first-pine-marten-sighting-in-over-50-years.html

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  Wow, a pine marten down in Cornwall. And yes to pics of red squirrels. I’m very jealous.
  
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2. JC Moore
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  Here is a link to the my favorite squirrel:
  
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  1. Rachel M
    
    March 20, 2015
    
    That looks like a grey squirrel rather than a red one but he’s still very cute. We’ve got these in our backyard too.
  2. JC Moore
    
    March 21, 2015
    
    Hmmm. We call that a red squirrel as he has red underneath his stomach and tail and around his ears and mouth. Our gray squirrel has all white or light gray in those areas, is smaller, and much more agile. The other type of squirrel we have is the flying squirrel, who is about as rare as your pine Martin – I have seen one in my whole lifetime.
  3. Rachel M
    
    March 22, 2015
    
    Ah, ok. The red squirrels here are red all over with a white tummy. They are rare because they’ve almost been wiped out by the introduced grey squirrel.
Graham With Hats

March 20, 2015

I knew Galileo was wrong. 🙂

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  Haha, funny 🙂
  
  Reply
PedalWORKS

March 20, 2015

Nice post. I love the spelling. You are right not to correct your daughter on this.

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 20, 2015
  
  I love her spelling too. I’ll have to keep all these things so she can see them when she grows up.
  
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  1. PedalWORKS
    
    March 20, 2015
    
    Be sure you do! You’ll appreciate it even more years from now when she is all grown up.
Chait

March 21, 2015

Very cute drawings! Hope you are filing them somewhere in the cloud.

I am not sure if looking at sun during eclipse affects the vision. I would not test it though 🙂

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 22, 2015
  
  Don’t test it! From what I understand the problem arises because it doesn’t hurt your eyes to look at the sun during an eclipse so your reflex to look away will not work. However the sun’s rays can still damage your eyes. That’s why it can be dangerous.
  
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TanGental

March 21, 2015

The things we do to keep the Union together – first it’s the NHS then its tax raising powers and now we let the Scots get the sunshine and eclipses.. Whatever next? A decent football team? Oil? Love the planetary diary – like something Stephen Hawking would come up with if you attached his chair to the mains.

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1. Rachel M
  
  March 22, 2015
  
  Aberdeen does get quite a lot of sun. Much more than I was expecting and more than I remember the UK having. I’ve previously lived in York and Cambridge and I remember more dark and cloudy days than this. Although I have to say that I don’t mind the grey days at all but the winter sun has been nice too. I’m just glad I don’t need sunscreen 🙂
  
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